Natural Law Midterm PDF

ETIC111 LESSON 7: NATURAL LAW WEEK 8 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OLFU - VAL...

ETIC111 LESSON 7: NATURAL LAW WEEK 8 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OLFU - VAL ○ Selection of the best means NATURAL LAW USE ○ Command of all ST. THOMAS AQUINAS FRUITION Also known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis ○ Enjoyment of the will after the will of the Born in 1225 Aquino, Italy intention Died in 1274 in Italy COMMANDED ACTS Referred to as Thomas because his last name Aquinas refers to where he was born. INTERNAL ACTS Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and ○ Remind Doctor of the Church EXTERNAL ACTS Theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism ○ mixed Begins his natural law theory by differentiating human Internal and external acts from acts of man. MORAL OBJECT His best-known work is the Summa Theologica The intention inherent in the action that one is actually NATURAL LAW performing. Is a system in which actions are seen as morally and It specifies the human act and is the purpose that the act ethically correct if it accords with the end purpose of accomplishes as a means to the ultimate goal of life. human nature and human goals. Although the moral object or finis operis is the fundamental element of the morality of the human act, Follows the fundamental maxim, ‘do good and avoid evil’. that is also the circumstance. HUMAN ACTS CIRCUMSTANCE Human acts as Aquinas expressed proceeds from the MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS: Is the part of the human act that must be considered in order to evaluate the total moral act. Can be considered in ○ IGNORANCE various moral questions, thus, be might ask, ‘who’, ‘when’, VISIBLE - you have knowledge ‘how much’ or ‘in what manner’. INVISIBLE - you don’t have any knowledge INTENTION/MOTIVE ○ PASSION/CONCUPISCENCE The ultimate reason that determines the moral act. Your passion Is a means towards attainment of true happiness both of a Negative passion - crime of passion agent and the common good. ○ FEAR PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE-EFFECT Disturbance of the mind usually Designed by Aquinas. outside. Used in order to judge the moral acceptability of the ○ VIOLENCE human act that has two effect: Done by outside ○ Good ○ HABIT ○ Evil Repetitive action Traditional moral theology, presents four conditions for ACTS OF MAN the Double-effect Principle to be applied: Is an action that does not proceeds from the wil 1. The action is good itself or at least in different Instinct 2. The good effect must come first before the evil ELICITED ACTS effect or a least simultaneously 3. The good effect must be intended WISH 4. There must be a proportionately grave reason ○ Attainable but some are not attainable for the evil effect to happen INTENTION ○ Will of something attainable. MEDIEVAL THINKER THOMAS AQUINAS CONSENT This natural law of theory is part of a larger project, which ○ Deliberation of the will at all means to carry on is Aquinas’ vision of the Christian faith the intention THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’ ETHICS ELECTION ETIC111: ETHICS LESSON 7: NATURAL LAW 1  ETIC111 LESSON 7: NATURAL LAW WEEK 8 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OLFU - VAL How in our pursuit of happiness we direct our actions better ensure compliance. This is referred to as toward specific ends. PROMULGATION. How our actions are related to certain dispositions in a “The definition of law may be gathered; and it is nothing dynamic way since our actions arise from our habits and else than an ordinance or reason for the common good, at the same time reinforce a good disposition leading us made by him who has care of the community and toward making moral choices. promulgated” - Aquinas The Christian Life is about developing the capacities given VARIETIES OF LAW us by God into a disposition of virtue inclined toward the We do not only recognize God as the source of these good. beings, but also acknowledge the way they have been Aquinas also puts forward that there is within us a created and the way they could return to Him, which is the conscience that directs our moral thinking. work of His divide reason itself. We are called to heed the voice of conscience and “He governs all the acts and movements that re to be enjoined to develop and maintain a life of virtue. found in each single creature, so the type of Divine However, we need a basis for our conscience to be Wisdom, as moving all things to their due end, bears the properly informed, and we need a clearer guidepost on character of law.” whether certain decisions we make lead us toward virtue ETERNAL LAW or vice. Being told that one should heed one’s conscience or that Refers specifically to the instances where we have what is one should try to be virtuous, does every little to guide handed down to us in sacred scripture. people as to what specifically should be done in a give “So then no one can know the eternal law, as it is in itself, situation. except the blessed who see God in His Essence.” There is a need or a clearer basis of ethics, a ground the What God wills for creation will more concretely direct our sense of what is wrong and How each participant in it is intended to return to Him right. Irrational creatures are participating in the eternal law, For Aquinas, there should be natural law. although we could hardly say that they are in any way “conscious” of this law. THE ESSENCE AND VARIETIES OF LAW Aquinas notes that “we cannot speak of them by obeying ESSENCE OF LAW the law, except by the way of similitude.” As a rational beings, we have free will. Through our “Wherefore it has a share of the External Reason, whereby capacity for reason, we are able to judge between it has a natural inclination to it’s proper act and end.” possibilities and to choose to direct our actions in one way This participation of the external law in the natural or the other. creature is called NATURAL LAW. ACTIONS are directed toward attaining ends or goods that HUMAN LAW we desire. Refers to all instances wherein human being construct and There are many possible desirable ends or goods, and we enforce laws in their community. act in such ways to pursue them. DIVINE LAW ACTS are rightly toward their ends by reason. ○ Promulgated by God Aquinas reminds us that we cannot simply act in pursuit of NATURAL LAW our own ends or good without any regard for other people’s end or good. We are not isolated beings, but IN COMMON IN OTHER BEINGS beings who belong to a community. We have consider how we, human beings, are both unique Since we belong to a community, we have to consider and at the same time participating in the community of what is good for the community as well as our own good. the rest of creation. Our presence in the rest of creation This can be called COMMON GOOD. does not only mean that we interact with creatures that We should recognize the proper measure or the limits in are not human, but that there is also in our nature our acts in a way that we can pursue ends, about our own something that shares in the nature of other beings. and that of others, together. The determination of the IN COMMON WITH OTHER ANIMALS proper measure of our acts can be referred to as LAW. Aquinas then goes on to say that there is our human A LAW, therefore, is concerned with the COMMON GOOD. nature, common with other animals, a desire that has to It is also necessary for rules or laws to be communicated do with sexual intercourse and the care of one’s offspring. to the people involved in order to enforce them and to ETIC111: ETHICS LESSON 7: NATURAL LAW 2  ETIC111 LESSON 7: NATURAL LAW WEEK 8 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OLFU - VAL As the matter of fact, animals periodically engage in sexual intercourse at a specific time of “heat”, and this could result an offspring. In human too, that natural inclination to engage in the sexual act and to reproduce exists. Thomas writes certain special sins are said to be against nature, thus contrary to sexual intercourse, which is natural to all animals, is unisexual ust, which has received the special name of the unnatural crime. UNIQUELY HUMAN We have an inclination to good according to the nature of our reasons. With this, we have a natural inclination to know the truth about God and to live in Society. It is of interest that this is followed by matters of both an epistemic and a social concern. GENERAL GUIDEPOSTS: ○ EPISTEMIC CONCERN - which is that we know we pursue the truth ○ SOCIAL CONCERN - which is that we know we live in relation to others Thomas tells us that there is a priority among the powers of our soul, with the intellectual directing and commanding our sensitive and nutritive capacities. Recognizing how being rational is what is proper to man, the apparent vagueness of the third inclination that Aquinas mentions is counter-balanced by the recognition that he is not interested in providing precepts that one would simply, unthinkingly follow. In making human laws, additions that are not at all problematic for the natural law are possible. As Aquinas puts it, nothing hinders a change in the natural law by way of addition, since our reason has found and can fine many things that benefit individual and communal human life. ETIC111: ETHICS LESSON 7: NATURAL LAW 3