Natural moral law

• Primary precepts

  
  

  key rules to promote human flourishing

  
  

  • key precept = synderesis rule - all humans are inclined to do good because we want to survive
  • God gives us reason to work out how to fulfil our telos

  1. worship God
  2. live in an orderly society
  3. reproduce
  4. educate
  5. preserve human life and defend the innocent

  • these articulate our nature towards good (synderesis) within us

  
  

  secondary precepts are the judgements we make after we apply the primary precepts to situations - practical application
• Aquinas developed Aristotles ideas

  • Aristotle thought that natural law was 'given', the purpose of humans was to live a life of reason

  natural law is a human nature that we should live in accordance with

  • Aquinas says that we can use reason to perceive laws and work out the good thing to do - reason is God-given - links to conscience - ratio and conscientia
  • moral acts come from free, rational beings - similar to Kant's formula of the end in itself
  • synderesis rule: do good and avoid evil - "all other precepts of the natural law are based on this" - Aquinas Summa Theologica
• Aquinas telos

  God should be the ultimate end or purpose of human life

  Being in the presence of God is the human telos or ultimate reason for existing

  
  

  • developed from Aristotle's idea of the Prime Mover as God
• four tiers of law

  law is a certain rule and measure of acts where people are induced or restrained from acting
• Four tiers of law

  Eternal law: unchanging and universal reason of God

  • mind of God
  • planted in every person's rational soul
  • does not change according to political or societal changes

  
  

  The divine law – God’s revelation to humans in the Bible

  • his commandments teaching us how to live

  
  

  The natural law – The moral law God created in human nature, discoverable by human reason

  • we can perceive God's eternal law - even those who have not read the Bible

  
  

  Human law – The laws humans make which should be based on the natural and divine law

  • practices or customs of society
• EVAL NML

  S

  • universal - can be applied widely and across all time and cultures - absolutist
  • combines religious views with reason - allows autonomy in decision making
  • helpful easy to work out what is right and wrong
  • links between the creator, creation and our purpose - Bowie - NML directs people to their final destiny: divine law over human law
  • DoDE - deontological - focus on action and intention which we can have control over compared to uncertain outcomes (utilitarianism)
  • Mel Thompson - we can judge right and wrong by seeing how far it conforms to its purpose
• EVAL NML


  W

  • absolutist - what to do if two universal rules conflict?
  • unreliable reason - scripture is more reliable, reason can lead to corruption - link to conscience - vincible ignorance
  • naturalistic fallacy - Hume's law - cannot deduce an ought from an is - just because sex produces children doesn't mean that all acts of sex should solely be for procreation - link to sexual ethics - homosexuality - sex can have more than one purpose
  • does not appeal to non-believers - wouldn't want to fulfil God's will - Clarke - if mankind has no religious destiny then following NML makes no sense