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Normative Ethical Theories (Aquinas' Natural Moral Law (Aquinas…

- - - - Aristotle believed that virtue is a skill that can only be learned through experience - 'practical wisdom.' Your character is developed through habituation. If you do a virtuous thing over and over again, eventually it will become ingrained as part of your character
        
        You learn what the right thing to do is from role models around you who already possess virtue, known as 'moral-exemplars,' and copying them. Aristotle believed that we are built with the ability to recognise them and the desire to imitate them
    - - For example, the vice of deficiency of courage is cowardice and the vice of excess is recklessness. For example, if someone is being mugged and if you intervene you risk being harmed yourself, then although you might think you're being courageous, you are actually being reckless
        
        Aristotle said 'you definitely can have too much of a good thing'
    - - Many scientists reject the claim that there is an end goal for humanity, arguing that evolution does not have a goal and it is a series of random genetic mutations
      - It is difficult to apply virtue ethics to moral dilemmas such as embryo research and cloning
      - Many moral decisions require immediate answers, whereas according to Aristotle's virtue ethics, it can take a whole lifetime to become virtuous and know right from wrong
    - - It avoids the problem having to predict the future, which is an issue in consequentialist ethics
      - It is a much simpler approach than Natural Moral Law's doctrine of double effect as it doesn't require you to memorise a series of conditions, you simply have to copy others
      - It avoids the claim that there is a perfect solution to every problem, and instead it equips people to deal with those problems
- - - - The only rule to follow in situation ethics is agape, meaning universal love, and the altruistic love for the unselfish wellbeing of others
    - - Love and justice are the same, because justice is love distributed
      - Love is not liking - it is not sentimental or based on emotions, and Fletcher is not asking you to like everybody, but we must love everyone universally, and 'love thy neighbour'
      - Love is the only norm, and love replaces law
      - Love justifies its means - the end justifies the means - the end result is what is important, not the way we go about achieving it
      - Only one thing is intrinsically good, and that is love. Love is always good
      - Love decides there and then - love's decisions must be made situationally, not prescriptively, as we have to accept that morality has grey areas that no rule can universally cover
    - - Relativism - morality is always relative to the situation
      - Positivism - we should love one another because we love God
      - Pragmatism - morality is about what maximises love in the situation
      - Personalism - people come before laws
    - - Situation ethics reflects the true Christian value of love
      - Jesus acted situationally, not legalistically, so Christians should follow Jesus' example
      - Situation ethics promotes individual autonomy - it empowers people to make their own decisions
      - It is clear that a situational approach to ethics is often used within our current legal system, as the court hear each case individually and the judge comes to a decision on what they think they should do in the situation
      - Situation ethics adapts readily to new technologies and developments in science, whereas Aquinas' precepts of Natural Moral Law struggles to accommodate new technologies as they are perhaps a bit outdated
    - - Puts too much responsibility on the individual
      - Runs the risk of moral chaos - people could make the wrong decisions believing them to be right
      - There may be no consensus on what the most loving action may be
    - - German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler as a response to the Nazi atrocities against the Jews
      - Fletcher refers to a hypothetical situation in which a man is caught in the burning wreckage of a plane, begging to be shot. Fletcher thinks that even if the person is innocent (as opposed to Hitler being guilty) it can still sometimes be the most loving outcome to shoot an innocent man
- - - - to live in an ordered society and to worship God
        
        Aquinas assumed that it was natural for all humans to love and worship God, yet atheists would disagree
    - - The desire to reproduce, and the drive to educate and care for their offspring
        
        Secondary precept: using contraception or abortion is wrong as it stops reproduction, and homosexual relationships are also wrong as this does not lead to reproduction
        
        In today's liberal society, Aquinas' claim that homosexuality is intrinsically wrong is outdated and would now be seen as very discriminative and homophobic
        
        It is clear that following natural moral law can lead to bad and immoral outcomes, such as the Catholic Church's prohibition of contraception has massively contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS
    - - The drive to preserve innocent life and self preservation. Aquinas thought that all things have a natural desire to carry on existing, even things like trees and rocks
        
        From the primary precepts we derive the secondary precepts: abortion is wrong because it defies the primary precept of preserving innocent life
        
        Aquinas allows some flexibility in the secondary precepts, saying that 'the natural law is altogether unchangeable in its first principles, but in it secondary principles... it may be changed in some particular cases of rare occurrence.' Aquinas is saying that although the primary principles are absolute, as we get closer to the detail of the situation, the more variation there will been determining what the natural moral law requires us to do
        
        Aquinas' natural moral law successfully outlines a set of rules by which people can live in an ordered society, which helps us to avoid confusion when making moral decisions. Out of the 3 approaches, (situation, virtue and nml) Natural Moral Law provides the most structured approach so it causes the least amount of confusion
  - - - We also need to be aware of the differences between interior and exterior acts - for example, if we give to charity but our intention is to be admired by others, then the act is a good exterior act but has a bad interior. If we give to charity with the pure intention of helping people then this is a good interior act
        
        Aquinas lists 4 cardinal virtues: prudence (cautiousness), justice, fortitude (courage) and temperance (self control)
      - Aquinas' natural moral law is realistic as it acknowledges that people make mistakes, such as by being confused by real and apparent goods
    - - 2nd Condition - The Means-end Condition: the bad effect must not be the means by which the good effect is achieved
      - 3rd condition - the Right Intention Condition: the intention must only be to achieve the good effect, so the bad effect must be an unintentional side effect
      - 1st condition - The Nature of the Act Condition: the action must be morally good or neutral. Acts such as lying or intentionally killing are never permissible
      - 4th condition - The Proportionality Condition: the good effect must be at least equivalent in importance to the bad effect
        
        For example, the doctrine of double effect would allow a doctor to administer doses of morphine to a patient to reduce their pain, because 1) the act of administering morphine relieves pain, so it meets the nature of the act condition. 2) the bad effect (the earlier death of the patient) is not the means by which the good effect is achieved, so it meets the means-end condition. 3) the doctor's only intention is to relieve the suffering of the patient and a faster death is just an unintentional side effect, so it meets the right intention condition. 4) the relief of suffering is at least equivalent to the importance of the bad effect, so the proportionality condition is also passed
      - The doctrine of double effect is complicated and difficult to remember, whereas virtue ethics avoids this problem as you can simply copy other people