NORMS OF MORALITY

Definition of Norm

A norm is a standard of measurement. We measure the size, the weight, the length, the
duration, the intensity, the quantity, and the depth of something. We measure objects, events,
emotions, and persons. The moral qualities of human acts are measured with the use of a norm
or standard to support a judgment.

The norms of morality “are the criteria of judgment about the sorts of persons we ought
to be and the sorts of actions we ought to perform” (Richard M. Gula:1).
Moral norms are the criteria for judging the quality of character, what sort a person one
ought.

Types of norm:

1. Eternal Divine Law (objective). It is the ultimate and absolute norm of morality;
independent of any standard.

2. Human Reason(subjective) It is related to the person’s conscience

I. Law as the object norm of morality

A. General Notion of Law

Law is a norm which governs nature and actions of things

 Law of Nature. Principles that governs the natural phenomena of the world (e.g.
biological system of humans)

 Natural Law. Refers to the free acts of rational beings

B. Moral Law Defined

Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by one who has the
care of the community.

Law is a kind of imposition which necessities obedience on the part of the subjects.

Essential Elements for a Law to be Reasonable:

1. It must be just; it promotes and upholds the inherent rights and dignity of every
human person
2. It must be honest; it should not contradict tin essence to any higher law
3. It must be possible of fulfillment (practical)
 4. It must be relatively permanent
5. It must be promulgated(publicize)
6. It must be directed to common good
7. . It must be promulgated by one who has the care of the community (e.g.
president)

C. Division of Law

1. The Eternal Law: The Ultimate Norm of Morality:

Eternal Law is the plan of God in creating all creatures, both animate and inanimate,
giving to each of them its respective nature. The Book of Genesis tells the story of creation.

St. Thomas Aquinas refers to eternal law as “the exemplar of divine wisdom as directing
all actions and movements” (1-11,93:1). St Augustine defines it as “the divine reason or will of
God commanding that the natural order of things be preserved and forbidding that it be
disturbed” (Contra Faustum Manicheum, 22:27)

The concept of Eternal law is inferred from the order and harmony of the created
universe.

Attributes of Eternal Law

1. Eternal law is eternal (endless) and unchangeable

2. Eternal law is absolutely universal

2. The Natural Law: The Remote Norm of Morality

Natural law refers to the operational tendencies of the human nature - the chemical,
biological, physiological, psychological, and rational properties of man as an organism. St.
Thomas Aquinas says that “the natural law is nothing else than the rational creature’s
participation of the eternal law” and “provides the possibilities and potentialities which the
human person can use to make human life truly human”. Paul Tillich refers to the natural law as
“the inner law of our true being, of our essential created nature, which demands that we
actualize what follows from it”. Pointing to it as the “will of God”, he explains it to be – “the
command to become what one potentially is, a person within a community of persons”.

Natural law is the tendency of human nature towards growth and self-fulfillment.

a. Attributes of Natural Law

i. It is universal - because it is the human nature which is shared by all men, though
realized differently according to their respective cultures.
ii. It is obligatory – because the tendencies of our human nature are the laws of our
desires and actuations which we cannot ignore without dire consequences.
iii. It has its proper sanctions.
iv. It is knowable or recognizable.
 v. It is unchangeable.

b. The Contents of Natural Law

i. Formal norms relate to formation of character, what kind of person we ought to be.
These consists of such directives toward character development, such as “be honest”,
“be direct”, “be respectful”, etc.
ii. Material norms relate to actions, what actions we ought to do.

Material norms determine whether an act on account of its nature

conforms or does not conform to the formal norms.

The directives of formal norms are permanent and unchangeable because they are the
requirements of natural law. The directives of material norms are temporary and changeable
because they are the result of rational evaluation.

iii. Outlines of Natural law:

 Fundamental principles in their general applications

 General moral principles which sustain and preserve the basic relations of man
to God, to himself and to neighbors
 Applications of the general principles of morality to specific situations inl life and
society
 Remote conclusions derived by a process of reasoning

3. Human Positive Law and the Moral Law

Human positive law is derived from the natural law and promulgated for the common
good by a human agency which has a charge of a society, particularly of a sovereign one;
juridical order of the society (e.g. law of the state or civil law; law of the church or ecclesiastical
law)