Natural law

• Natural law

  • The universe has a natural order that words to achieve an 'end' or a 'purpose' which is determined by God.
  • Human beings are part of the natural world and so they too have a 'purpose'.
  • Natural law is about acting in ways that we are consistently moving towards our purpose.
  • Deontological argument - focuses on action/intention rather than outcome.
• Aristotle

  • Observed that everything in the natural world have a telos.
  • Human telos is to reach eudaimonia, human flourishing. This is the supreme good.
  • Humans must use their reason to work this out.
  • Believe there is an unchanging order to the physical world.
  • Things in nature seem to be driven towards a goal.
  • The rightness of the wrongness of an action can be discovered by looking at whether the action agrees with human purpose.
  • The only way to work out how to live a good life is to observe people who are successful and flourishing.
  • Good ness is a habit, not a one-off action.
• Aquinas

  • Was inspired by Aristotle's ideas yet took a more religious approach.
  • Human telos is to have God like perfection.
  • We can do this by using out god given gift of reason.
  • God has given us reason so we can work out what we should and shouldn't do.
  • Understood the efficiency cause of the universe was God as he bought the world into existence.
• Propositions of natural law

  • Nature decides what is right and wrong.
  • God made nature but the theory works without worshiping God.
  • Ethics don't come from God, but from nature.
• 4 tiers of law

  1. Eternal law - The principles God made and uses to control the universe, it is beyond human knowledge. Humans can glimpse reflections of it through the natural world.
  2. Divine law - The law of God revealed through the Bible. The Church transmits the divine law to people.
  3. Natural law - Moral law of God within human nature. Everyone has a sense that 'good is to be done and evil is to be avoided'.
  4. Human law - The laws of the nations ie.everyday laws.
• Applying the 4 tiers of law

  • God made it possible for all human beings to achieve their ultimate purpose in their life by power of reason alone (no faith needed). But using reason and worshipping God makes it easer to reach God.
  • This involves combining natural law with divine law to reach the eternal law.
  • Those who don't believe in God will find it more difficult to achieve their telos but it is not impossible.
• Synderesis rule

  • The thought process behind making moral decisions.
  • States that 'good is to be done and pursued and evil avoided'.
  • We all have the basic desires to do good and avoid evil.
  • Humans never deliberately pursue evil.
  • However, sometimes evil happens because of 'apparent' and not 'real' goods.
• Real and apparent goods

  • Apparent goods - appears good but it isn't in reality. It takes us further away from what God intended.
  • Real goods - the use of reason leading to action that leads us towards perfection, Gods intention. This achieves are telos.
  • Aquinas argued that when humans sin, they priories an apparent good.
  • They don't actively choose to do something against human flourishing.
  • To be good people need to train their practical reason to recognise and pursue the real good by developing intellectual and moral virtues.
• Primary/Secondary precepts

  • A precept is a law built into nature. They can be understood using reason.
  • Primary precepts are good acts which lead to to achieve our telos. They apply to all humans without exception. They are a direct reflection of eternal law.

  1. Preservation of life.
  2. Reproduction.
  3. Education of the young.
  4. Living peacefully in society.
  5. Worship God.

  • Whilst primary precepts are set in stone, secondary precepts vary. This makes secondary precepts realistic and flexible.
  • Secondary precepts are applications of the primary precepts in certain situations.
• Principle of the double effect

  • There are sometimes times when you cannot do good without bad consequences.
  • The doctrine of the double effect was devised to solve this dilemma .
  • It is always wrong to do a bad act intentionally in order to being about good outcomes, but it is sometimes acceptable to do a good act despite knowing that it will bring about bad consequences.
  • Bad is only an unintended side effect within a good decision.
  • There are 4 conditions that must be met it is is morally permissible.
• Conditions of the double effect

  1. We don't wish the evil effects and make all reasonable efforts to avoid them.
  2. The immediate effect is good in itself.
  3. The evil is not a means to obtain the good effect.
  4. The good effect is proportionate to the least evil effect.

  • It proposes that when the primary intention of an action is good, it is justified even if secondary effects (unintended consequences) would usually call it evil.
  • Example: if a surgeon operates with the intention of saving a life, but the patient unexpectedly dies, the surgeon is not guilty of murder.
• Strengths

  • Establishes common universal rules.
  • Primary precepts provide absolute framework, applies the same for everyone.
  • Based on reason - open to anyone, religion is not necessary.
  • Focussed on the search for happiness and fulfilment.
  • Rational - uses common sense.
  • Gives the world a meaning and a purpose.
  • Flexible - allows for the secondary precepts to vary and the double effect.
• Weaknesses

  • General rules don't apply to individual situations.
  • Nature changes through evolution, natural law doesn't change but the rest of the world does?
  • If all humans were really born with the ability to know the primary precepts, we should expect to find more moral agreement than we do.
  • Human reason is imperfect and limited.
  • Outdated.
  • Too simplistic, humans don't have a single 'fixed' nature.
  • Double effect is unbiblical. Gods' commandments are absolute. The double effect shows natural law as trying to add flexibility to the inflexible bible.
• Moore

  • Natural law is incoherent.
  • It depends on defining what is good, but goodness is unanalysable and unnatural, and so cannot be defined by any reference to nature.
  • Goodness cannot be equated with anything else meaning it can be easily misinterpreted or generalised.
  • It may be a fact that we ought to care for others, but that doesn't mean we ought to care for others.
  • 'You cannot derive an ought from an is' -ie. simply because our nature is to love, doesn't meant that it is right or good.
• Barth

  • Humans are too corrupt to apply reason morally.
  • Human reason is imperfect, limited and unreliable.
  • It doesn't provide a string basis for moral decision making.
  • Relief too much on reason and not enough on Gods grace and revelation of the bible.
  • The reliance on human fallible reason makes the ethical model impractical.
• Neilsen

  • Recognised that 'there is no single human nature', we cannot all be generalised to have the same nature and purpose.
  • Human nature seems to change which leads to the debate over what is and what is not natural.
  • Example: it was once acceded the homosexuality was unnatural, but this idea has now been challenged.
  • Human nature cannot be an effective way of making moral decisions.
• Augustine

  • Aquinas' view of nature is too optimistic.
  • The doctrine of double effect dismisses Aquinas' theory that we are all instinctively good.
  • It is impossible to determine what is accepted as 'necessary violence' in each situation.
  • The desire in wanting to protect ourselves by endangering the life of another is selfish and fails to follow the self giving example of Jesus in hope that we will all be rewarded and punished in the afterlife for what we deserve.
• Darwin

  • The universe is just a brute fact and has no purpose.
  • Everything that supposedly has a purpose imposes an artificial idea of design in the universe.
  • Natural law is based on assumptions about the world which modern science questions.
  • The laws of nature have no intention of moving forward towards a particular purpose.
  • There is no divine purpose and things are simply just the way they are.