CHAPTER III

NATURALISM

Chapter Objectives 
After reading this chapter, you should be able to: 
1. Recognize how Thomas Aquinas made use of ancient Greek concepts to provide a
rational grounding to an ethical theory based on the Christian faith; 
2. identify the natural law in distinction from, but also in relation to, the other types of law
mentioned by Aquinas: eternal law, human law, and divine law; and 
3. Apply the precepts of the natural law to contemporary moral concerns. 

INTRODUCTION 
In October 2016, newspapers reported that Pantaleon Alvarez, Speaker of the House of
Representatives, was intending to draft a bill which would amend the country's Family Code,
thereby allowing for the legalization of same-sex unions. This would result in the possibility of
two men together or two women together being identified as a couple with rights guaranteed
and protected by the law. However, as one newspaper report revealed, even before anything
could be formally proposed, other fellow legislators had already expressed to the media their
refusal to support any such initiative. 
The reasons given in the news article vary, ranging from the opinion that seeing two men
kiss is unsightly, to the statement that there is something “irregular" about belonging to the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community, and to the judgment that two people
of the same sex being together is unnatural.
We are used to hearing people justify done something by making the appeal that what
they maintain is what is "natural; and therefore acceptable. Likewise, people would judge
something as unacceptable on the basis that it is supposedly "unnatural." Thus, we are no longer
surprised when we hear people condemn and label many different things as "unnatural': maybe
receiving blood transfusions, eating meat, or, as our news report shows, engaging in sexual
relations that one might consider deviant departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behavior. We also
realize that sometimes we might find ourselves astonished or perplexed as to what different
people might consider “unnatural." 
In order to proceed, it is therefore necessary to ask: "What do the words natural and
unnatural mean?" Sometimes, the word "natural" seems to be used to refer to some kind of
intuition that a person has, one which is so apparently true to him that it is unquestioned. For
example, a woman may claim that it is simply "unnatural" to eat any kind of insect, and what
this means is that she personally finds herself averse to the idea of doing so. In other instances,
the word is used to try to justify a certain way of behaving by seeing its likeness somewhere in
the natural world. For example, a man might claim that it is okay for him to have more than one
sexual partner, since, in a pride of lions, the alpha male gets to mate with all the she-lions. In yet
other instances, the word “natural" is used as an appeal to something instinctual without it
being directed by reason. For example, a man may deem it all right if he were to urinate just
anywhere because after all he sees it as" natural function of humans. Lastly, we also easily find
people using the word "natural" to refer to what seems common to them given their particular
environment. For instance, a Filipina may suppose that eating three full meals of rice and ulam
every day is what is "natural" because everyone she knows behaves in that way.