NATURAL LAW

CHAPTER III
THOMAS AQUINAS
( 1225 – 1274 )
THOMAS AQUINAS ( 1225 – 1274 )

Hailed as a doctor of the Roman

Catholic Church,

Was a Dominican friar who was the

preeminent intellectual figure of the
scholastic period of the Middle Ages
Summa Theologiae – Aquinas magnum
opus, is a voluminous work that
comprehensively discusses many
significant points in Christian theology.
 THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN
STORY
The fundamental truth maintained and
elaborated by Aquinas in all his works
is the promise right at the center of
the Christian faith: that we are
created by God to ultimately return to
Him.
 Structure of Summa Theologiae
( 3 parts)

1. AQUINAS SPEAKS OF GOD

2.DEALS WITH MAN OR THE DYNAMICS OF

HUMAN LIFE

3. FOCUSES ON JESUS AS OUR SAVIOR

THE GREEK HERITAGE
 Neoplatonic Good

Central Belief of the Christian Faith:

God creates. This does not only mean
that He brings about beings, but it
also means that He cares for, and thus
governs, the activity of the universe
and of every creature.
Plato
- Ancient Greek Philosopher
- he is credited for giving the
subsequent history of philosophy in
one of its most compelling and
enduring ideas: the notion of a
supreme and absolutely transcendent
good.
 -in his work The Republic, it is often
supposed that Plato is trying to
envision the ideal society.

- Plato was trying to answer questions

such as,
o “ Why should I bother trying to be
good?”

o “Why cannot ‘good’ be just whatever I

say it is?”
Neoplatonists

- scholars who turned to Plato’s text

and tried to decipher his ideas.
 The Idea of the Good
Excerpt from The Republic
Plato

Now ,that which imparts truth to the

known and the power of knowing to the
knower is what I would have you term
the idea of good, and this you will deem
to be the cause of science, and of the
truth in so far as the latter becomes the
subject of knowledge.
 ARISTOTELIAN BEING AND BECOMING

Aristotle proposes 4 concepts of Beings

Any being have 4 causes:

1. Material Cause
- any being we can see around is
corporeal, possessed of a certain
materiality or physical “stuff.”
 2. Formal cause
- the “shape” that makes a being a
particular kind can be called its form.

3. Efficient Cause
- something which brings about the
presence of another being.
4. Final Cause
- a being has an apparent end or goal
 Four Causes

1. That out of which a thing comes to

be and which persists, is called “cause.”

2. The form or the archetype, that is,

the statement of the essence and its
genera are called “causes.”
 3. The primary source of the change
or coming to rest

4. In the sense of end or “that for the

sake of which” a thing is done.
 Potency and Act

- a being may carry within itself

certain potentials, but these require
being actualized.
THE ESSENCE AND
VARIETIES OF LAW
 Essence

Common Good
- we have to consider what is good
for the community as well as our
own good.
 Law
- the determination of the proper
measure of our acts.

Promulgation
- rules or laws is necessary to be
communicated to the people involved in
order to enforce them and to better
ensure compliance.
 Varieties

Eternal Law

- Refers to what God wills for creation,

how each participant in it is intended to
return to Him.
***Irrational creatures are participating
in the law. This creatures are moved by
divine providence.

***The human beings, as rational,

participates more fully and perfectly in
the law given the capacity for reason.
 Aquinas write:

“Wherefore it has a share of the

Eternal Reason, whereby it has a
natural inclination to its proper acts
and end: and this participation of the
eternal law in the rational creature is
called the Natural Law.
 Human Law
- refers to all instances wherein
human beings construct and enforce
laws in their communities.

Divine Law
- refers specifically to the instances
where we have percepts or instructions
that comes from divine revelation.