St. Thomas Aquinas's Natural Law

Aquinas developed a fuller account of NATURAL LAW in the 13th Century. His ethical theory is ABSOLUTIST & DEONTOLOGICAL - thus focused on the ethicality of actions not just their end. In his work Summa Theologia (1273) he described natural law as a moral code existing within the PURPOSE of nature, created by God.

"Law is nothing else that an ordination of reason for the common good".

Aristotle - Aquinas:
Aquinas took much of Aristotle's musings and adapted them to form the idea of the Eternal Law of God. This law exists to ASSIST humans to direct their actions in a way that they may reach their ETERNAL DESTINY WITH GOD. This divinely inspired law covers both the OUTWARD view of actions and the INTERNAL motivation.

"Man needs to be directed to his supernatural end in a higher way".

- Law that directs towards good and avoids evil is therefore a development of Aristotle's PRACTICAL REASON: Moral life lives according to reason & immoral life lives at odds with reason. Reason determines that the ultimate purpose & destiny of human life is FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. Humans naturally tend towards this destiny and shoul therefore live according to their design.

Primary & Secondary Precepts:
For Aquinas man's first precept is SELF-PRESERVATION and he therefore established a set of primary precepts to ensure this goal - may be remembered via the following acronym:

W- orship God (Eternal destiny of fellowship with God)
O- rdered Society
R- eproduction (Continuation of the Species)
L- earning (Education of Children)
D- efend Innocent (Preservation of Human Life)

These precepts are the "good" that all actions should direct towards and remain unchanging "Natural Law is the same for all men". Acts that accord with these precepts are good and vice versa.

SECONDARY PRECEPTS - rulings to allow us to direct our actions towards PRIMARY precepts. For example according to Natural Law, ABORTION is wrong as it does not DEFEND the innocent and actively destroys human life - going againt the fundamental precept of "Self preservation".

- The idea of primary & secondary precepts owes much to Aristotle's thinking on SUBORDINATE and ULTIMATE ends.

Casuistry:
Aristotle & Aquinas believed moral decision are made in the situation and it is only in that situation one can really determine what is good. Such decision requires conscience and indeed arguably PRACTICAL REASON is then facilitated. Ethical thinking should then be follwed as such:

1. The Issue - Should I abort?
2. Practical Reason - Abortion = Killing?
3. Principles - Primary Precept; defending of innocent

= Abortion is WRONG

This kind of thinking = CASUISTRY = application of ethics to TYPES of cases but not INDIVIDUAL cases.

Real & Apparent Goods:
Aquinas believed that human nature was essentially good as natural law is within everyone and humans naturally seek good and avoid evil.

"No evil can be desirable, either by natural appetite or by conscience will".

- Human actions that are not in the pursuit of perfection can be xplained as the pursuit of an APPARENT GOOD which is something illfitting of human ideals. Eg. "A fornicator seeks a pleasure which involves him in immoral guilts" = An adulterer is acting in the pursuit of an APPARENT GOOD namely pleasure not a REAL good. He is therefore ating in a way that prevents God's intentions from occuring and is using error of reason in which to do so.

- Temptation is the hook that leads us to APPARENT GOODS.

Exterior & Interior Acts:
For Aquinas both intention and act is important. For example;
If one ACTS in a GOOD way but for the WRONG INTENTION = Good Exterior Act & Bad Interior Act.

Eg. Helping an old lady cross the road to impress someone, not out of charity.

- The only end that Aquinas values is God and he believes that all actions are intrinsically good or bad because when humans actin in accordance with their ULTIMATE PURPOSE (i.e. fellowship with God) God is glorified. In this way Natural Law proves to be wholly DEONTOLOGICAl as the MEANS are just as important as the END.