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Natural Law - Coggle Diagram
Natural Law
The Precepts
Natural Human desire is to do good - Aquinas believed that humans naturally want to do good and through the ability to reason they can work out the correct course of action
Aquinas proposed 5 precepts, if our actions follow the precepts they are right, if they don't, they are wrong, they must be followed at all times
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For example, killing of any kind is wrong (murder, euthanasia, abortion) because it breaks the primary precept of preservation of life
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In doing this they create a secondary precept. This is an appliaction of Natural Law to a specific situation. Secondary precepts very dpending on the situation, but they will always hold up the primary precepts
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Secondary Precepts - when humans are faced with a moral decision they must use reason to see if their action holds up a primary precept.
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Aquinas and Natural Law
Principles are universal and fixed - they apply to everyone, everywhere at all times
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Deontological theory, only concerned with action, not the result or consequence
The central principle of Natural Law is "Good is to be pursued and evil is to be avoided" Summa Theologica
Using this as the overriding theory, humans must use our reason to work out what the right action is.
Many other thinkers agree with natural lae such as; Hugo Grotius, William Paley, John Locke and Aristotle.
Aristotle supported the idea that humans use reason to find out the natural law which is universal and unchanging
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