Divine Law and Natural Law

Deontology
• “…deontological theories place special
emphasis on the relationship of duty and the
morality of the action” (Evangelista and
Mabaquiao, 2020)
• Etymology: “deon” = duty
• Certain types of actions are intrinsically right
or wrong

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 4 Deontological Theories
• Divine Command Theory
• Natural Law
• Categorical Imperative
• Conditional Deontology

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DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

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“Does God command what is good because it is
good, or is it good because God commands it?”
Socrates in Euthyphro

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 Divine Command Theory
• Divine Command Theory: “whatever is good is
good because God wills it to be good”
• Since we are creations of God, we must follow
His design
• Key to morally upright life: following God’s will
• Religious rules > moral rules

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 2 Versions of the Divine Command
Theory
• Strong version – All morality emanates from
God
• Weak version – Ethics is grounded in reason
but in cases where it conflicts with God’s will
then we must abandon it all-together

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 Strong Version of the DVC
• Strong version: “…maintains that there is no
real conflict between God’s commands and
genuine morality because whatever God
commands is right for the very reason that
God commands it.” (Evangelista and
Mabaquiao, 2020)
• Implication: In the absence of God, morality
would not exist

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 Strong Version of the DVC cont.
• Summary of Claims: (Pojman and Freiser,
2009)
– Morality originates from God
– Moral rightness = willed by God; Moral wrongness
= not willed by God
– Morality is solely based on Divine Will
• Ivan Karamazov: “If God does not exist,
everything is permissible.”
• Absence of God = moral nihilism

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 Weak Version of the DVC
• Weak Version: “…ethics has an independent
foundation. God’s commands, nonetheless,
override the rule of morality in case of a
conflict between that independent foundation
and God’s commandments occur.” (Evangelista
and Mabaquiao, 2020)
• Kierkegaard’s Existential Philosophy

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 Weak Version of the DVC cont.
• In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard retells
different versions of the story of Abraham and
Isaac
• He introduces the idea of the “leap of faith”
• Stages of Life according to Kierkegaard in
Either/Or:
– Aesthetic Stage
– Ethical Stage
– Religious Stage

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 Weak Version of the DVC cont.
• Since morality is grounded in human reason, it
can still exist in the absence of God
• If we are to follow God, however, we must do
so in fear and trembling

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 Divine Command Theory
• Fits in best with monotheistic instead of
polytheistic religions where God is good
(Hinman, 2003)
• It is much harder to discern the will of the
divine if there are conflicting divinities to
follow

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 Criticisms of the Divine Command
Theory
1. Difficulty of answering how we can know
God’s will
• Many people and religions claim to know
God’s will but different holy texts have
different claims to these (e.g. Quran, Bible,
Torah)
• Even within specific religions, God’s “stance”
towards certain issues are not necessarily
clear

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 Criticisms of the Divine Command
Theory cont.
• Some individuals claim that God speaks to
them
– Holy Winds in Navajo Indians
– Felix Manalo
– Eddie Villanueva
– Apollo Quiboloy
• Difficulty is not that they say too little, but
that they say too much

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 Criticisms of the Divine Command
Theory cont.
2. God’s arbitrariness
• As long as God says something is okay, it
becomes okay
• In defense against this, Robert Adams (1973)
argues that God would never ask of this
because God is love
• In response to his defense, however, doesn’t it
presuppose that there is a higher value than
God to which He Himself is bound to
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 Criticisms of the Divine Command
Theory cont.
3. Disregards human autonomy
• Humans beings are autonomous; this means
that we have the capacity to make decisions
• We are endowed with rationality and free will
• If we are bound by what God wants us to do,
then our autonomy is rendered useless

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 Importance of God in Morality
• Despite the criticisms launched against the
idea, the concept of God has practical
relevance to morality
• God ensures that absolute justice exists, and
that the morally unjust are punished
• God is the foundation of morality
• Although religion doesn’t address the content
of morality, it addresses the motivation for it

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NATURAL LAW THEORY

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 Key Ideas of Natural Law Theory
• Human beings have a rational nature
endowed to us by God and through this, we
can flourish in certain prescribed ways
• Even in the absence of God, we can
understand the laws of the universe through
reason
• Natural laws are universal and unchangable
and should be the standards for what we call
“positive” laws (Pojman and Freiser, 2009)

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 Natural Law Theory
• Originally conceived by the Stoics in the
Ancient period
• According to them, within man is a divine
spark that “enables us to discover the eternal
laws necessary for individual happiness and
social harmony” (Pojman and Freiser, 2009)
• Positive laws, or man-made laws, must be in
accordance to these natural/divine laws

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 Natural Law Theory cont.
• Pantheists – belief that God is immanent
within nature
• Thomas Aquinas synthesized the Stoic view
with Aristotle’s philosophy during the
Medieval Period

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 Basis of Right Action
• Morality = acting in accordance to the natural
order of things
• Theory presupposes that certain actions are
intrinsically right or wrong
• These are understandable through reason
• Even in contemporary culture, the following
ring true:
– Natural = good
– Unnatural = bad

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 Notion of Nature
• For the Stoics, the world is governed by a
rational cosmic order
• Rational action = aligned with cosmic order
• For Aquinas, man’s purpose is to live in
accordance to this rational order
• Humanity’s function is to exhibit rationality in
all forms: contemplation, deliberation, and
action (Pojman and Freiser, 2009)

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 Notion of Nature cont.
• We discover natural laws through deliberative
processes
• Aquinas synthesizes the Stoics’ idea of cosmic
order with Aristotle’s teleology
• Fundamental precept: do good, avoid evil
• To do good, is to follow our inclinations
– Assumption: we are inclined towards the good
– Desires: life, procreation, knowledge, and
sociability

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 Moral Absolutism and its Qualifying
Principles
• Moral Absolutism – there are actions that are
always obligatory or wrong regardless of the
consequences
• None of the values preceding from natural
inclinations may be directly violated
– Innocent people’s lives can not be sacrificed even
if it is to save more innocents
– Procreative function should not be hindered by
contraception
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 Moral Absolutism and its Qualifying
Principles
• In situations where natural laws conflict with
one another, we can refer to two principles:
– Principle of Forfeiture
– Principle of Double Effect

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 Principle of Forfeiture
• Threatening of life = forfeiture of life
• Used to justify self-defense and capital
punishment
• Context changes an act from bad to good

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 Principle of Double Effect
• Principle of Double Effect: “it is always wrong
to do a bad act intentionally in order to bring
about good consequences, but that it is
sometimes permissible to do a good act
despite knowing that it will bring about bad
consequences” (Pojman and Freiser, 2020)

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 Principle of Double Effect cont.
• 4 conditions that must be satisfied for an act to
be morally permissible:
– Nature-of-the-Act Condition – act is considered apart
from its consequences
– Means-End Condition – the bad effect must not be the
means by which we achieve the good effect
– Right-Intention Condition – intention must only be to
achieve the good effect even if one is knowledgeable
a bout the bad effect
– Proportionality Condition – good effect must be at
least equivalent to the bad effect

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 Situational Example
• Situation: A pregnant woman is diagnosed
with cancer in her uterus and the only
treatment that could save her life was a
hysterectomy. Undergoing the treatment,
however, will terminate her pregnancy.
• Nature-of-an-Act Condition: It is morally
obligatory for the woman to undergo the
procedure to save her life.

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 Situational Example cont.
• Means-End Condition: The termination of the
pregnancy is not a prerequisite to save the
woman’s life but rather it is an unfortunate
side-effect.
• Right-Intention Condition: The bad effect,
although foreseen, is unavoidable and since it
was not intended it is permissible.
• Proportionality Condition: A life is saved in
place of another life.

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 References
• Pojman, Louis P and Freiser, James. Ethics:
Discovering Right and Wrong. Sixth Edition.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company,
2009.
• Evangelista, Francis Julius N. and Mabaquiao,
Napoleon Jr. Ethics: Theories and Applications.
Manila; Anvil Publishing Inc, 2020.

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