Ethics

 
Chapter 3

NATURAL LAW
Chapter 3

NATURAL LAW
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 and two women together being identified as a couple with rights guaranteed
and protected by law. However, as one newspaper reported 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 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 Community (LGBT), and to the judgment that two people of the
same sex is unnatural.

We are used to hearing people justify something that is done by making the appeal to what they
maintain 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
might consider deviant. We also realize that sometimes we might find ourselves astonished or
perplexed as to what different people might consider “unnatural”.

Specific Objectives

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

 
- Recognize how Thomas Aquinas made use of ancient Greek concepts to provide a
rational grounding to an ethical theory based on the Christian faith;

- Identify the natural law in distinction from, but also in relation to, the other types of law
mentioned by Aquinas eternal law, and divine law; and

- Apply the precepts of the natural law to contemporary moral concerns.

Duration
Chapter 3: Natural Law = 9 hours
 (7 hours discussion; 2hours assessment)
Lesson

1 THOMAS AQUINAS
There have been various thinkers and systems of thought emerging throughout history
that could be said to present a natural law theory. Among them, the one we will be focusing on is
the medieval thinker Thomas Aquinas. It has o be recognized, however, that this natural law
theory is part of a larger discussion, which is his moral theory taken as a whole. This moral
theory, in turn, is part of a larger project, which is Aquinas’s vision of the Christian faith.

THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)

 Hailed as a doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. A Dominican friar who was the
preeminent intellectual figure of the scholastic period of Middle Ages, contributing to
the doctrine of the faith more than any other figure of his time. His Summa
Theologiae, his magnus opus, is a voluminous work that comprehensively discusses
many significant points in Christian theology. He was canonized in 1323.

THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN STORY

 Aquinas elaborated and maintained in all his works the promise right at the center of
Christian faith: that we are created by God in order to ultimately return to Him.

 His magnus opus, Summa Theologiae follows the trajectory of this story; the three parts
are

1. Aquinas speaks of God, and although we acknowledge that our limited human
intellect cannot fully grasp Him, we nevertheless are able to say something
concerning His goodness, His might, and His creative power.

2. It deals with man or the dynamic of human life. Salvation in only possible
through the presence of God’s grace.

3. It focuses on Jesus as our Savior.

THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’ ETHICS

 Explore Aquinas’s discussion of other matters, such as, how;

o In our pursuit of happiness, we direct our actions toward specific ends.

Our emotions— “the passions”—are involved in this process and
therefore require the proper order if they are to properly contribute to a
good life.
 o Actions are related to certain dispositions (“habits”) in a dynamic way
since our actions both arise from our habits and at the same time reinforce
them

o Develop either good or bad habits with a good disposition leading us

toward making immoral choices.

o Christian life, therefore, is about developing the capacities given to us by

God, into a disposition of virtue inclined toward the good.

 Aquinas also puts forward that there is within us a conscience that directs our
moral thinking. For Aquinas there is a sense of right and wrong in us that we are
obliged to obey. However, he also adds that this must be informed, guided and
ultimately grounded in an objective bass of morality.

 So we are called to heed the voice of conscience and enjoined to develop and
maintain a life virtue. However, these both require content, so we need something
more. We need a basis for our conscience to be properly informed, and we need a
clearer guidepost on whether certain decisions we make leads us toward virtue or
vice. Being told that one should heed 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. There is a need for clearer basis of ethics, a ground that will
more concretely direct us sense of what is right and wrong, this would be the
natural law.

 We can recall how the ethical approach called divine command theory urges a
person toward unthinking obedience to religious precepts. Given the problems of
he simplistic approach to ethics, we can contrast how the moral theory of Aquinas
requires judicious use of reason. In doing so, one’s sense of right and wrong
would be grounded on something stable: human nature itself.