Thomas Aquinas: Meaning and Nature of Law

Thomas Aquinas

• Born in the 13th century in Roccasecca, Italy, within the Kingdom of Sicily to a noble family
• Aquinas was a Dominican priest
• He was a philosopher and proponent of natural theology during Scholasticism
• His philosophy influenced Christian and Western theology
• He wrote Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles

Meaning and Nature of Law

• Law regulates community actions
• Law can induce or restrain human actions
• Law's functions are to direct towards specific ends, induce action, and restrain action.

Basic Elements of Law

• Law is an order of practical reason
• It obligates a person to a specific behavior based on right and wrong
• Law benefits the entire community
• Laws are enacted by the people or their representatives
• The law must be communicated clearly and publicized

Kinds of Law

• Eternal Law is based on God's divine providence and governs the universe
• Natural Law is derived from nature and is a system of right or justice common to all humans
• People participate in eternal law through natural law
• A basic principle of natural moral law: "do good; avoid evil”
• Divine Law is derived from eternal law through human revelation
• Human Law is enacted and enforced in society to promote virtue and deter crime

Natural Law Ethics

• Moral standards come from the nature of the world and human beings
• The law of nature "is nothing else than the participation of the eternal law in the rational creature."
• Humans have animalistic sense appetites and unique rational appetites
• An action contrary to reason goes against humans
• The first precept of natural law is to "do good and avoid evil"
• Good and evil are objective, universal, and derived from human nature

Three Ends of Human Beings

• To preserve life
• To reproduce
• To belong in society
• These originate from natural tendencies
• Primary precepts are derived from natural human inclinations
• Humans choose ways to achieve perfection, purified by reason
• Objective goodness is revealed when divine guidance clarifies natural inclinations
• Reason is fallible due to observation, interpretation, and changing conditions
• Humans seek perfection through intellect and moral virtues
• Achieving full potential requires using reason to do good

Conscience: Guide in Making Moral Decisions

• Conscience is the natural human ability to discern right from wrong
• It is an innate intellectual activity
• Conscience has two parts: synderesis (knowing good and evil) and conscientia (making decisions)

Conscience: Guide in Making Moral Decisions

• Prudence is needed for correct judgments
• Wrongdoing is excused if one's conscience dictates right but is incorrect
• Children lack fully formed consciences

Virtue as the Source of Moral Strength

• Virtue is the means to perfect human activity and is developed through training
• Virtue is a habit that promotes righteous living
• It shapes intellect, will, desires, and emotions to achieve happiness
• Good habits direct abilities toward fitting goals

Three Main Categories of Virtues

• Intellectual virtues discipline the mind, including understanding and wisdom
• Moral virtues enable one to consistently choose good and include prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude
• Theological virtues are qualities from God's grace: faith, hope, and charity to trust in his power

The Ultimate End: Happiness in God

• The ultimate end is happiness in union with God
• Good people seek happiness, while wrongdoers may face no consequences
• Humans aim to attain something
• Human acts are judged by their ends
• Ultimate end: Happiness in God
• The intellect seeks truth, and the will desires goodness
• God can satisfy one's longing for perfect happiness
• God is the Summum Bonum, the Highest Good, the Final and Perfect Happiness

Key points

• Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good
• Four types of laws: eternal, natural, divine, and human
• Conscience distinguishes right from wrong
• Virtue is essential for righteous living

Immanuel Kant and Ethics

• Born in 1724 and died in 1804, Kant was a german philosopher
• His work was based around the Age of Enlightenment
• Major influence on Western Thought
• Inspired German idealism
• Prominent works are Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason
• Foci are thoughts on epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics
• Schools of rationalism contributed to empiricism

Kantian Philosophy

• It is intensively explored by scholars
• Kantianism is also used to refer to the contemporary philosophical perspective in continental philosophy

Theory of Deontology

• Kantian ethics is often thought to be deontological in nature
• Deontology focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions, as opposed to consequences or virtue.
• Deontology: deon (duty) and logos (study)
• Ethics are duty-based where ethical rules bind people.
• Conformity with a moral norm makes a choice right

Theory of Good Will

• Good will remains good regardless of circumstance
• Will pertains motivation and intention behind an action to be controlled
• The act of doing good is the interplay of one's motivation and intention
• Good will cannot be an instrument for evil
• Goodness remains even with the difficulties someone faces

Theory of Categorical Imperative

• It evaluates motivations for necessary actions
• First: Formula of Universality and the Law of Nature
• An act that contradicts itself, and contradicts already established moral laws should not be done
• One should ask "what would happen if everybody did that?"
• An act should be applicable to everyone in a similar situation
• Formula of Humanity: Act in such a way that you treat humanity not merely as a means to an end
• Treat humanity as an end
• Formula of Autonomy: The third principle follows as the ultimate condition of their harmony with practical reason: the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will."
• The Kingdom of Ends Formulation: "Act according to the maxims of a universally legislating member of a merely possible kingdom of ends."

Key Points

• Kantian ethics is often thought to be deontological in nature
• The morality of one's actions depends on good wil
• Kant requires a human being to act good towards everyone, and they wish other people to follow

Hedonism and Utilitarianism

• Jeremy Bentham was an english philosopher, political radical, and legal-social reformer in the early modern period
• Best known as the founder of Utilitarianism
• His impacts were great in later years with his followers such as John Stuart Mill
• Written in Bentham's The Principles of Morals and Legislation
• Bentham focuses on evaluating actions based on relevant consequences
• Happiness is experiencing pleasure wthout any pain
• Felicific calculus is an algorithm that calculated amount of pleasure that a person may gain
• It is also called the utility, hedonic and hedonistic calculus

Felicific Calculus Components

• Intensity (How strong is the pleasure?)
• Duration (How long will the pleasure last?)
• Certainty or uncertainty (How likely or unlikely is it that the pleasure will occur?)
• Propinquity or remoteness (How soon will the pleasure occur?)
• Fecundity (The probability that the action will be followed by sensations of the same kind)
• Purity (The probability that it will not be followed by sensations of the opposite kind)
• Extent (How many people will be affected?)

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

• English philosopher, political economist, and member of the British parliament
• Most influential English-speaking philosopher during the 19th century
• Is known for elucidating the utilitarian theory of his teacher Jeremy Bentham
• He popularized utilitarianism, a necessary instruction in development of political thought
• He defined utilitarianism in his book as actions that promote happiness versus reverse of happiness
• The formula to happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain
• Pleasure can be of higher faculties or of the lower ones
• Utilitarianism is anchored on natural sentiments that are based on humans social nature
• Things that individuals seek to make their life happy are their means to happiness

Theories of Hedonism and Utilitarianism

• Consequentialism is an ethical theory stating that the consequences of an action determine if it is right or wrong
• Action is right when its effects are good
• Action is wrong when the effects are bad
• Hedonism is when pleasure and happiness are the main aims of human life to maximize pleasure
• Hedonism refers to one's inherent right to look for the pleasant

Hedonist

• Pleasure is the highest goal
• Christian scriptures quote "eat and drink, for tomorrow we die"- directed to epicureans
• Goal in life should be to attain happiness and tranquility with friendships and freedom

Utilitarianism vs Hedonism

• Actions are judged to be right or wrong based on their consequences
• Greatest good to the greatest number of people
• Utilitarianism acknowledges the happiness of others too to maximize human welfare
• Utilitarianism has thus frequently been associated with reformation movements

The virtue of justice

• Derived from Latin word jus meaning right
• To accord each person what he or she deserves
• Depicted by a woman wearing blindfold with a sword and scales
• This is symbolic of the fairness and the impartiality

Traditional Context of Justice

• Signifies fidelity to the law and perfect observance of the divine precepts
• In Roman Catholic moderation between selfishness and selflessness
• Justice disposes one to respect the rights of others to establish harmonious human relationships
• Peschke lists 3 characteristics: A social norm directive, approbative manifestation, and is obligatory

Theories of Justice

• Positive Law Theory: conformity to laws
• Social Good Theory: doing what is useful for the social good.
• Natural Right Theory: natural rights which is the ultimate basis of justice, not from society but from birth right
• The demand of justice in principle are enforceable
• The demand of justice are definite
• Violated claims demands restitution or compensation

Classification of Justice

• Attributive Justice that renders to every person that is his or attributes to him or her
• Procedural Justice with fair procedures
• Proportional Justice renders to every person what is due by right,
• Social Justice economic welfare and cooperation
• Retributive Justice punishments and penalties
• Compensatory Justice way of compensating people
• Commutative Justice in which exchange happens based on equality
• Contributive Justice which is a compliance to demand
• Restorative Justice of making offenders accountable
• Distributive Justice with equal distributions

Rawl's Concept of Justice as Fairness

• Justice and fairness is key to liberty and equality
• Justice is fairness describes a set of principle to set up a society that promotes fairness
• Constructed on ideas that citizens that are free and equal
• Main principle is giving liberty and equality
• The liberty principle which is that everyone is entitled to basic rights
• Equality where people are equal
• Equal opportunity for fair education
• The difference principle, regulating distribution of wealth

Impartiality

• King Solomon said that “man has dominated man to his injury"
• Conscious effort is needed to rid oneself of bias and prejudice
• Impartiality is defined as fairness of objectivity
• Consequentialism suggests impartiality is shown in how actions do not hurt others

Key Concepts of Impartiality

• All judgements must be from a point of view that is universal
• What ought to be done requires neutral opinions
• Decisions determining an acts morality must be the same for everyone

Feeling and Values: View of Emotions

• Easy to describe, hard to pinpoint and identify in moral situations
• According to Kann, when people make moral judgements it comes from inclinations, affectations and desires
• Susceptibility and Sensibility that causes pleasure and pain based on awareness
• Kant explains how moral feelings only originate through rational and apriori
• He suggests that moral feeling is also derived from moral principles

Meaning and Theory of Values

• Determines behavior and influences decision making
• Values come from relationships and experiences
• Major influences are family, peers, etc
• Axiology is a the study of values in what is considered important
• A situation becomes a point on which moral can also provide peace in ethics

Max Scheler: Theory of Values

• Theory revolves around love
• Different levels of value modalities-feeling stating are -Sensory modality- lower level leading to pain and pleasure -Vital Value that includes certain feeling that are important in life -Spiritual Love hat includes love, joy, beauty and ugliness -Holiness modality with feelings ranging from blissfulness to despair

Moral Emotions

• Emotions are closely tied to interest of the overall good
• Important role in judgements of right and wrong behavior
• Emotions work with individuals to engage in ethical acts
• Emotions play a role in ethical decisions
• Inner emotions direct people to act in ethics
• Anger discourages other from repeating bad behavior
• Emotions may prompt positive behavior
• Empathy motives a persons actions

Moral Actions

• Moral standards serves as the framework to determine right from wrong
• Can be consequences or non consequences
• Non consequences are based on the natural moral code
• Moral standards are the standards of a person or group about what is morally correct and good
• Normoral standards is standards without ethical backing and lack ethical

Ethical subjectivism

• It is meta-ethical
• About the nature of judgements
• No objective rules
• That ethical statements are arbitrary and not expressions of truth