Natural

Law

St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas

❖ Also known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor

Communis
❖ Born in 1225 Aquino, Italy
❖ Died in 1274 in Italy
❖ Referred to as Thomas because his last
name Aquinas refers to where he was born.
❖ Italian Dominican friar, philosopher,
Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church
❖ Theologian, and jurist in the tradition of
scholasticism
❖ Begins his natural law theory by
differentiating human acts from acts of man.
Natural Law
– Natural law is a system in which actions
are seen as morally and ethically correct
if t accords with the end purpose of
human nature and human goals.
– Follows the fundamental maxim, ‘do
good and avoid evil’.
Human Acts

– Human acts as Aquinas expressed proceeds from the will.

Acts of Man

– Is an action that does not proceeds from the will

Moral Object
– The intention inherent in the action
that one is actually performing.
– It specifies the human act and is the
purpose that the act accomplishes as
a means to the ultimate goal of life.
– Although the moral object or finis
operis is the fundamental element of
the morality of the human act, that is
also the circumstance.
Circumtance
- is the part of the human act that
must be considered in order to
evaluate the total moral act. Can be
considered in various moral
questions, thus, be might ask, ‘who’,
‘when’, ‘how much’ or ‘in what
manner’.
Intention / Motive
– The ultimate reason that
determines the moral act
– Is a means towards
attainment of true happiness
both of a agent and the
common good.
Principle of
Double-Effect
Principle of Double-Effect

o Designed by Aquinas

o Used in order to judge the moral

acceptability of the human act that has
two effect:
o GOOD
o EVIL
Traditional Moral Theology, presents
four conditions for the Double-effect
Principle to be applied:
1. The action is good
itself or at least in
different
2. The Good effect must
come first before the evil
effect or a least
simultaneously
3. The Good effect must
be intended
 4. There must be a
proportionately grave reason
for the evil effect to happen
THOMAS AQUINAS
Medieval Thinker Thomas
Aquinas

– This natural law of theory is part of a larger

project, which is Aquinas’ vision of the
Christian faith
The Context of Aquinas’ Ethics
o How in our pursuit of happiness we direct
our actions toward specific ends.
o How our actions are related to certain
dispositions in a dynamic way since our
actions arise from our habits and at the
same time reinforce a good disposition
leading us toward making moral choices.
The Context of Aquinas’ Ethics
o The Christian Life is about developing the
capacities given us by God into a disposition of
virtue inclined toward the good
o Aquinas also puts forward that there is within us
a conscience that directs our moral thinking
o We are called to heed the voice of conscience
and enjoined to develop and maintain a life of
virtue.
The Context of Aquinas’ Ethics
o However, we need a basis for our conscience
to be properly informed, and we need a
clearer guidepost on whether certain decisions
we make lead us toward virtue or vice.
o Being told that one should heed one’s
conscience or that one should try to be
virtuous, does very little to guide people as to
what specifically should be done in a given
situation
The Context of Aquinas’ Ethics

oThere is a need or a clearer basis of

ethics, a ground the will more
concretely direct our sense of what is
wrong and right
oFor Aquinas, there should be Natural
Law
THE
ESSENCE
AND
VARIETIES
OF LAW
ESSENCE OF LAW
ESSENCE OF LAW

–ACTIONS are directed

toward attaining ends or
goods that we desire.
ESSENCE OF LAW
– There are many possible
desirable ends or goods, and we
act in such ways to pursue them.
– ACTS are rightly toward their
ends by reason.
 •AQUINAS reminds us that
we cannot simply act in
pursuit of our own ends or
good without any regard for
other people's end or good.
We are not isolated beings,
but beings who belong to a
community.
•Since we belong to a community, we have to consider
what is good for the community as well as our own
good. This can be called COMMON GOOD.

•We should reconize the proper measure or the limits in

our acts in a way that we can pursue ends, about our own
and that of others, together. The determination of the
proper measure of our acts can be referred to as LAW.
•We should reconize the proper
measure or the limits in our acts in
a way that we can pursue ends,
about our own and that of others,
together. The determination of the
proper measure of our acts can be
referred to as LAW.
•A LAW, therefore, is concerned
with the COMMON GOOD.
•It is also necessary for rules or laws
to be communicated to the people
involved in order to enforce them and
to better ensure compliance. This is
reffered to as PROMULGATION.
 •"The definition of law may be

gathered; and it is nothing else than an

ordinance or reason for the common

good, made by him who has care of the

communitg and promulgated" —

Aquinas
VARIETIES OF LAW
VARIETIES OF LAW
– "He governs all the acts and
movements that are to be found in
each single creature, so the type of
Divine Wisdom, as moving all things
to their due end, bears the
character of law."
 • What God wills for creation

• How each participant in it is

ETERNAL LAW intended to return to Him

We must recognize that we are part of the eternal law and we participate in it in a special way.
 Irrational creatures are participating in the
eternal law, although we could hardly say
that they are in any way "conscious" of this
law.

Aquinas notes that "we cannot speak of them

by obeying the law, except by the way of
similtude"
 "Wherefore it has a share of the External
.

Reason, whereby it has a natural

inclination to it's proper act and end"

- this participation of the external law in

the natural creature is called NATURAL LAW
 HUMAN LAW

refers to all instances

wherein human being
construct and enforce
laws in their community
 ETERNAL LAW

refers specifically to the

instances where we
have what is handed
down to us in sacred
scripture
"So then no one can know
the eternal law, as it is in
itself, except the blessed
who see God in His
Essence."
 IN COMMON IN
OTHER BEINGS
We have consider how we, human beings, are both unique
and at the same time participating in the community of the
rest of creation. Our presence in the rest of creation does not
only mean that we interact with creatures that are not human,
but that there is also in our nature something that shares in the
nature of other beings.
 IN COMMON WITH
OTHER ANIMALS

Aquinas then goes on to say that there is our human nature, common with other animals, a desire
that has to do with sexual intercourse and the care of one’s offspring. 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 lust, which has received the special name of the unnatural
crime.
UNIQUELY HUMAN
Uniquely Human
o We have an inclination to good
according to the nature of our reasons.
o With this, we have a natural inclination to
know the truth about God and to live in
Society
o It is of interest that this is followed by
matters of both an epistemic and a
social concern.
Uniquely Human
o General guideposts:
o Epistemic Concern – which is that we know we pursue the
truth

o Social Concern – which is that we know we live in relation to others

Uniquely Human
oThomas tells us that there is a priority
among the powers of our soul, with
the intellectual directing and
commanding our sensitive and
nutritive capacities
Uniquely Human
o 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
Uniquely Human
o In making human laws, additions that are
not at all problematic for the natural law are
possible.
o 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.
THANK YOU!!!