Chapter

III
Natural Law
 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, 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 OCT., 2016 • Newspaper reported

• Speaker of the
PANTALEON House of
ALVAREZ Representative

DRAFT A BILL • Legalization of

Same – Sex unions
The reason 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 in unnatural.
We are used hearing people justify
done something by the appeal 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.”
We are no longer surprised when
we hear people condemn and label
many different things as
“unnatural”:
Maybe receiving blood transfusions
Eating meat
Engaging in sexual relations that
one might consider deviant
 NATURAL:
Refer to some kind of intuition that a person
has, one which is so apparently true to him
that ins is unquestioned.
The word is used to try to justify a certain
way of behaving by seeing its likeness
somewhere in the natural world.
Used to appeal to something instinctual
without it being directed by reason
Refer to what seems common to them given
their particular environment.