Natural Moral Law
Ethics and Philosophy- Paige Stewart
a) Explain how Natural Moral Law can be used to decide the right moral action
Plan:
Explain the basic principles of Natural Moral Law
Explain about the purpose and that everything seems to be striving to fulfil its purpose
Link Aquinas to Aristotle
‘Do good and avoid evil’
Primary precepts and the use of reason to establish the secondary precepts
Difference between real and apparent goods and interior and exterior acts
Thomas Aquinas used his understanding of Aristotle to develop his ideas of Natural Moral Law. Aquinas believed that when someone chose to go against reason in a situation, it was ‘equivalent to condemning the command of God.’ By using your power of reason in a situation, it can lead you to arrive at the right course of action when confronted with a moral dilemma. Aquinas believed that this enabled us to become informed with Natural Law and with God being the ultimate source of authority it is the moral code that comes down from him. Aquinas' ethical theory was absolutist and deontological, which means that it is focused on the ethicacy of actions.
For people to concentrate on Natural Moral Law, Aquinas accepted that to live in a civilized society there had to be rules that a community could follow. He devised the primary precepts that he thinks are essential to do this. The 5 primary precepts are the 5 basic principles of Aquinas Natural Moral Law which are the preservation of life, reproduction, educating the young, living in a society and worshipping god. These can be developed into the secondary precepts which are practical human rules that can control our daily behaviour, they are also rulings of things we should and shouldn't do because they uphold, or fail to uphold the primary precepts. The secondary precepts are flexible compared to the primary precepts which are firmly set in place.
Aquinas devises the secondary precepts from the primary ones. Aquinas regarded each precept as part of
a) Explain how Natural Moral Law can be used to decide the right moral action
Plan:
Explain the basic principles of Natural Moral Law
Explain about the purpose and that everything seems to be striving to fulfil its purpose
Link Aquinas to Aristotle
‘Do good and avoid evil’
Primary precepts and the use of reason to establish the secondary precepts
Difference between real and apparent goods and interior and exterior acts
Thomas Aquinas used his understanding of Aristotle to develop his ideas of Natural Moral Law. Aquinas believed that when someone chose to go against reason in a situation, it was ‘equivalent to condemning the command of God.’ By using your power of reason in a situation, it can lead you to arrive at the right course of action when confronted with a moral dilemma. Aquinas believed that this enabled us to become informed with Natural Law and with God being the ultimate source of authority it is the moral code that comes down from him. Aquinas' ethical theory was absolutist and deontological, which means that it is focused on the ethicacy of actions.
For people to concentrate on Natural Moral Law, Aquinas accepted that to live in a civilized society there had to be rules that a community could follow. He devised the primary precepts that he thinks are essential to do this. The 5 primary precepts are the 5 basic principles of Aquinas Natural Moral Law which are the preservation of life, reproduction, educating the young, living in a society and worshipping god. These can be developed into the secondary precepts which are practical human rules that can control our daily behaviour, they are also rulings of things we should and shouldn't do because they uphold, or fail to uphold the primary precepts. The secondary precepts are flexible compared to the primary precepts which are firmly set in place.
Aquinas devises the secondary precepts from the primary ones. Aquinas regarded each precept as part of