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Natural law - Coggle Diagram
Natural law
The four tiers of law
Divine law
- The divine law is the law revealed by God through the commands and teachings through revelation, for example in scripture such as the Ten Commandments
Human law
- Human laws are the customs and practices of a society, devised by governments and societies
- Ideally governments laws should be based on what we reason from natural law
Eternal law
- The eternal law is the law as known in the mind of God - it is his knowledge of what is right and wrong
- These are moral truths that we, at a human level, may be unable to fathom
Natural law
- Natural law is the moral thinking we are all capable of - all humans have the capacity to consider and work out the moral rules necessary for achieving our purpose
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Telos
Telos
- Aristotle argued that human beings have a unique telos (purpose) - this is found in rational thought
- Aristotle argued in exercising our reason, we are flourishing and achieving our telos
- Aquinas developed this idea and argued that humans are uniquely able to reflect on moral behaviour
Natural law is wrong to base ideas of right and wrong on telos
- Aquinas may have made the mistake of assuming that all beings have a purposes, it may be possible that each of us have different purposes - Aquinas seemed to allow this in his recognition that priests who are called to celibacy are exempt from the primary precept of reproduction
- Existentialists dispute whether humans have any purpose except the ones they freely choose for themselves - if God does not exist, then it seems difficult to argue for an objective human purpose
- Evolution seems to suggest that purpose is not a feature of the world, but is rather something that humans project on to the natural world
- The idea of telos entails that some things are natural to humans and other things aren't
Natural law is right to base ideas of right and wrong on telos
- If Aquinas is right that there is an essential human nature, then there really is a good for all humans that they should strive towards
- While Aquinas supports telos with reason, divine command theory (which argues that right and wrong are based on the revealed commands of God) makes a similar point via revelation - the Bible reveals the 'plans and purposes that God has for human beings' (Jeremiah)
The precepts
- The main moral rule or key precept according to Aquinas is that humans should 'do good and avoid evil' - this is known as synderesis
- All other moral rules are taken from this
Primary precepts
- Preservation of life - Aquinas argues that we are to preserve life - it is evident that life is important, so it is natural and reasonable to be concerned with preserving human life
- Reproduction - it is rational to ensure that life continues and this is the main purpose of sexual intercourse
- Education of the young - humans are intellectual and it is natural for us to learn, particularly the young
- Ordering of society - humans are social beings and it is good to live in an ordered society where it is possible to fulfil our purpose
- Worship of God - it is important to recognise God as the source of life and to live in a way that pleases him
Secondary precepts
- Secondary precepts are more specific rules that can be deduced from the primary precepts
- For example, given that preservation of life is a primary precept we can deduce that killing is wrong
- Whereas the primary precepts are fixed, there is some flexibility in the secondary precepts as these are based on how the primary precepts apply in specific circumstances
- For example, Catholics consider the rejection of contraception to be a secondary precept given the primary precept of reproduction
Double effect
- Double effect is the idea that if doing something good also produces a bad side effect, it is still ethically permissible as the bad side effect was not intended
- For Aquinas, what matters is which effect is intended - if you intend the good effect, you are not held responsible for the secondary bad effect
Double effect is not a good way of justifying moral actions
- The idea that a bad effect is permitted if it is unintended and secondary is difficult to judge - it is almost impossible to genuinely judge the intention of a person - eg there is no difference between the external actions of a doctor who wishes to relieve pain and a doctor who wants to kill
- It is difficult to know how far to press the idea of double effect and which areas it may cover - the use of contraception with the intention of saving life where HIV is spreading has proved a controversial area in the Catholic Church - there may be other areas where double effect could be applied in order to save life or assist reproduction that may result in a slippery slope
Double effect is a good way of justifying moral actions
- Double effect allows some flexibility in an otherwise rigid decision making procedure - an action that produces both good and bad effects is permitted provided the good one is intended
- Double effect is a recognition of the complexity of real life situations - some absolutists such as Kant have no answer for situations where duties clash or competing goods cannot both be achieved - double effect allows sufficient consequential thinking into natural law to solve some of these cases
- The ideas that humans have a purpose or end (telos), are rational and are given the capacity to understand the world by God, and should do what fits with our human nature are key to Aquinas' natural law