“There is no such thing as Natural Good.” Discuss how far you agree.

“There is no such thing as Natural Good.” Discuss how far you agree.
Many say that natural law means observable law relating to natural experience and also a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct. There is believed to be two main meanings to natural law, one by St. Thomas Aquinas, and another by Aristotle. However Aquinas based his theory on the theory of Aristotle. Aristotle believed that what is a natural good can be found through our experience, and our experience tells us if something is good if it fulfils its purpose. He also stated that all humans should ever want for themselves and their child is eudemonia, happiness. Aquinas said that goods for which we have a natural inclination include life, the procreation and education of offspring and knowledge. Whether there are additional goods that are symbolic of the natural law will depend on whether they in fact contribute to our rational perfection. He said humans are to do good and avoid evil. He argued that fulfilling our purpose is the only ‘good’ for humans.

On one hand, it could be argued that the statement is correct; there is no such thing as natural good, because firstly natural good is not reflected at all fin the animal kingdom, but if all living things have this inbuilt sense of natural good, then why do we not see it is them. Also natural good implies that goodness is from function or purpose, but there is disagreement over that function or purpose, the idea of natural good is much harder to define, so in those circumstances what is natural good. Some people may think that taking drugs is there purpose in life and this can be appeared to be an apparent good. Many people follow these apparent goods and confuse them for real goods, and that is where we could argue that there is no such thing as natural good because nobody knows what the purpose is of life, so therefore nobody knows what good they are supposed to achieve. Also it could be said that there is no such thing as natural good because Aquinas says that there is good inside everyone put there by god, but if everyone were ‘good’ then surely there would be no evil in the world which is proven in many countries in Africa, for example child soldiers. If natural law is put in us by God, then surely we would have the 10 commandments inside us, so even those people who have been brought up to do evil, would know it is not right and stop because they have this in built sense of morality. Finally the things that Aquinas has said to be natural good, are quite random and therefore not reliable because surely everybody would have a different natural good because we all grow up in different societies and believe completely theories about everything, so there is no way that we all have this one good in common. So basically can this natural good exist if it isn’t universal inside all people?

However, on the other hand it could be argued that there is such thing as natural good because natural good can be established by reason or purpose, which is Aristotle’s point that there are 4 causes for everything, which all points to the final cause which is the reason something exists at all. This gives an idea of what natural law is and if it is the same for every person. However in all human there is a fundamental instinct telling you to do right all the time, so this point argues that there is a natural good, because we all have a final reason to be living and human would always be swayed to doing right rather than wrong. Also Aristotle says that everybody has their telos, which is their main aim/goal in life so if it is from God then surely it must be to do good, and to achieve ultimate happiness, eudemonia. Also from a Christian viewpoint, in the Bible it says that God made everyone in the image of himself, which obviously implies that everybody has goodness in them. So there inbuilt sense of morality, or their conscience would tell them what is right and what is wrong. Therefore surely humans can determine themselves what is right and what is wrong, therefore there must be a natural good because it was given to humans by God, who we know is omnipotent.

In conclusion, I believe that there is such thing as natural law because in humans, proven everyday there is a conscience which always encourages us to do the right thing because it was put there by god. So if we actually followed our conscience and follow our instinct which is not bad as it was made in the image of God, we would be doing good and therefore natural good.