Natural Law

- Human naturally do good

- We are born with the ability to reason what is right and wrong.
- There is natural law for everything, eg trees are for photosynthesis to produce o2 for
living organisms
- Everything has a telos and that whether the actions are good depends upon whether
the purpose.
-
Telos – ultimate end or goal

Synderesis rule: ‘do good and avoid evil.’

The four tiers of law (divided into 4 pieces)

1. Eternal: absolute and eternal part of natural law, from God
2. Divine: bible, messengers, teachings
3. Natural: non-religious can also be capable to perceive the eternal law through the
application of human reason
4. Human: society, how we have used our ability to create laws for the society

Primary and Secondary precepts

Primary: absolute
Secondary: take from primary precepts, apply to daily life

Real and apparent goods

- If everyone is good, why is there evil?
- Aquinas: bad actions are good from their perspectives (apparent goods), eg getting
revenge
- Goes against natural law and the real goods revealed in the bible and in human
nature

Double effect
- Things can lead to two consequences. One good, one bad
- But Aquinas will apply the double effect which an action is still be good even there’s a
bad effect, as long as it is unintended, and the intention is good