...1) Explain Natural Law Theory. Natural Law refers to the laws of nature; it is also the basis of all science, observing what happened in nature, it is also a law that stretches across all cultures and ways of life. It is based on the religious idea of a God who creates everything with a purpose and end in the mind. Natural Law ethics is part of natural theology that tells us how God wants us to live here and now. To live according to natural law is to live by Gods intentions ethical direction can be found in what is common to all humans. If we follow these common dispositions then we act as God intended= we act in a good way. If we investigate carefully and reason correctly our search will lead to God. This is the basic of natural Theology. Natural law becomes more specific when we move towards secondary principles such as the 10 commandments (secondary law). They are always valid but we should not act upon them. Natural law is split up into 4 channels which are: Eternal Law- Is the mind of God which humans cannot know. Contained within it are the laws which govern the creation of the universe and cannot control the life cycle of everything in existence. Although humans cannot fully know the Eternal law, they can occasionally glimpse reflection of it, for example, through scientific knowledge of aspects of natural law. This shows that God is the starting point, his idea, his rules. He reveals himself threw divine law. God is also thinking about creating a world. We will...
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...Natural Law Theory & Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, & Recent Theories of Rights: Rawls & Nozick. Natural Law Theory: Natural Law theory in ethics is not to be confused with the laws of nature as put forward by physicists or other natural scientists, but they are related and do overlap. In moral domains, we are not concerned to give a mathematical, experimentally based theory of ethics or justice, but we are concerned with the general order of nature and how human life is nestled in and depends on that order. For example, life (& its preservation) depends on observing the necessities and limitations of nature, how we are dependent on food, shelter, parents and a community and the satisfying of other natural needs for life to exist, continue and prosper. The most prominent philosophers & political thinkers in this line of thought include the following: ancient - Plato, Aristotle, & later Cicero & other Roman statesmen; medieval - St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas & other thinkers in the Judeo-Christian tradition; modern - John Locke, & of course Thomas Jefferson & the “founding fathers” of the American republic. According to almost all of these authors, the natural order ultimately depends upon a first ordering principle that established the relation between man and nature. That first principle is commonly referred to as God or Creator, as indicated, for example, in the opening of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. One line of reasoning introduced by Plato is based...
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...Aquinas’ theory of Natural Law (25 Marks) The theory of natural law has been around for over 2000 years. Natural law believes that every person/thing has a purpose. It is an absolutist law; this is because the rules are set for everyone and need to be followed at all times. It is also deontological as natural law defines what is right and gives us moral rules. Aristotle believed humans were born into knowing how to act morally, as it was written within us. Aristotle believed that if people would follow laws it would lead to eudemonia. Aquinas was heavily influenced by Aristotle’s belief that all people served a purpose. Aquinas went on to believe that all of us have a ‘god given’ purpose. Soon enough Aquinas had created natural law. Natural law was influenced by Aristotle and created by Thomas Aquinas. Natural law is the idea that there is a natural order to the world that should be obeyed. This is determined by God. God made us with a purpose; natural law directs us on the purposes that we need to fulfil and natural law can be applied universally. Aquinas stated that there were four types of law: Eternal law, the perfect, complete set of God’s law that had created the universe. Humans have only partial knowledge of this. Divine law, the sacred teachings and texts of the church - that had come from God’s law written in the bible. Natural law, the human ability to know what is naturally right from our own reason. And finally, Human law, the interpretation of divine law. For example...
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...INTRODUCTION Natural Law Is a philosophy of law that is determined by nature, and so is unive rsal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature both social and personal and deduce binding rules of moral behavior from it. Natural law is often contrasted with the positive law of a given political community, society, or state. In legal theory, on the other hand, the interpretation of positive law requires some reference to natural law Although natural law is often conflated with common law, the two are distinct in that natural law is a view that certain rights or values are inherent in or universally cognizable by virtue of human reason or human nature, while common law is the legal tradition whereby certain rights or values are legally cognizable by virtue of judicial recognition or articulation PROPONENTS OF NATURAL LAW Plato According to Plato we live in an orderly universe. At the basis of this orderly universe or nature are the forms, most fundamentally the Form of the Good, which Plato describes as "the brightest region of Being". The Form of the Good is the cause of all things and when it is seen it leads a person to act wisely. In the Symposium, the Good is closely identified with the Beautiful. Also in the Symposium, Plato describes how the experience of the Beautiful by Socrates enables him to resist the temptations of wealth and sex. In the Republic, the ideal community is, "...a city which would be established in accordance with...
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...Essay 1 A Natural Law theorist would argue that homosexuality is unnatural because it goes against four common definitions of the word unnatural. The Natural Law theorist would argue that homosexuality goes against the descriptive laws of nature, it is artificially produced by humans, anything uncommon is unnatural, and that any use of an organ that it contrary to its purposed use is unnatural. Leiser believes that these contentions to homosexuality being a natural phenomenon do not sufficiently explain why homosexuality is unnatural. Leiser believes that homosexuality does not go against the descriptive laws of nature because these laws are meant to describe behavior, not prescribe it. (Leiser p. 56) Leiser gives the example of the law of nature that says that water boils at 212 degree Fahrenheit. This law does not tell the water that this is what it has to do, but simply describes a natural phenomenon. In fact, if any of these descriptive laws is broken, then it cannot be considered a law at all. (Leiser p. 56) With regards to the contention that homosexuality is unnatural because it is artificially produced by humans, Leiser refers to his typewriter. He explains that man had to remove certain substances from nature and put them together using a variety of chemical and mechanical processes to create his typewriter. With this, he argues that the logic that would lead someone to believe that this is a reason for thinking that homosexuality is unnatural would lead someone...
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...Explain the theory of Natural Law (25) The world has a set of moral laws that are part of the fabric world. Natural Law is that the laws of morality parallel the laws of the physical world and is a theory that stretches across all cultures and ways of life. It is a universal and deontological theory that says there are definite rights and wrongs. This Natural Law exists to assist humans to direct their actions in such a way that they may reach their eternal density with God. There is a Natural Law for the physical world and the moral world that is discoverable through observation. The theory of Natural Law was created by Thomas Aquinas, who built his theory on key ideas from Ancient Greeks, in particular The Stoics and Aristotle. Amongst the Stoics teachings was the fact that the universe had a rational and purposeful order; to live in accordance with the universes order one had to follow Natural Law. This meant when making laws, they should be made and developed so that they correspond to nature of the universe. Aquinas taught, on ideas based on Aristotle that good person is someone who fulfils their purpose, meaning acting in accordance to Natural law. Aquinas believed that God had put inclinations in each human to behave in certain was; following our inclinations will lead us to the highest good and fulfil our purpose. The most basic and fundamental inclination that a person has is to do good and avoid evil. This brings about the question of: what actually is good and bad...
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...Natural Law is an absolutist theory because it doesn’t vary its primary precepts with circumstances. Natural law is a mixture of teleological and deontological because it has primary precepts which are to do with duty, and secondary which apply to circumstances. Thomas Aquinas based Natural Law on Aristotle’s teaching about causality. In Aristotle Final cause and purpose are important when trying to give an explanation of a thing. Eg. the final cause of a knife is to cut. Aristotle thought this is what made a good knife. Something is good inasmuch as it fulfills its purpose. (The most important cause is the final cause which when achieved by an object it reaches perfection – because it has moved from potentiality to actuality eg. a potential A grade student becomes an actual one through application of hard work. ) The contrast with other senses of the word good can be brought out if we consider that a good knife can be used to perform a bad deed – ie. to stab a person. However, if it cut cleanly it would be good in the sense of doing what it was made for. This use of the word good is taken up in Aquinas and used in his theory. What is clear for a knife is not so clear for humans – what is our purpose? Ultimately, God Himself is the final purpose of human beings – our goals are not merely temporal, but eternal, because we have an immortal soul. However, we also have temporal purposes, which could be summarised as to live and flourish in certain ways discoverable by reason...
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...Wednesday, October 29, 2008 PHIL 3516 Professor R. Debes Natural Law Theory Defended One may pose the question; what is Natural Law Theory? To answer that question I would like to take a look at our book. Thomas Aquinas says this, “[Now] the first principle in practical matters, which are the object of the practical reason, is the last end: and the last end of human life is happiness or beatitude…. Consequently, law must… concern itself mainly with the order that is in beatitude. Moreover, since every part is ordained to the whole as the imperfect to the perfect, and since one man is a part of the perfect community, law must… concern itself properly with the order directed to universal happiness. Therefore Aristotle mentions both happiness and the body politic, since he says that we call those legal matters just which are adapted to produce and preserve happiness and its parts for the body politic.” (Q90) He goes on to say, “Thus,… Law is nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by him who has the care of the community. The natural law is promulgated by the very fact that God instilled it into man’s mind so as to be known by him naturally…. The promulgation that takes place in the present extends to future time by reason of the durability of written characters, by which means it is continually promulgated.” (Q90) Simplified we can take a few things from this excerpt such as that Natural Law is instilled in us by God, and directs towards a final...
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...REL123 August 18, 2013 Before I start anything about how what is conscience and how natural law work to inform our conscience, I will first give a little emphasis on what conscience is. According to Mueller in Theological Foundation on p.222, define conscience as something that involves several aspects of human reaction. He further explains that Conscience is a huge part of the human character that makes him or her to know and do good. He also explained further that Conscience is also a way to for us human being to determine what is good and what is evil. The second Vatican Council explained that “Conscience is the voice of God written in our hearts”. In dictionary.com, Conscience is said to be the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct, motives or action. According to Richard Gula cited from “Conscience” in Christian Ethics: An Introduction, Bernard Hoose, ed. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998), p. (110-122) Defines “Conscience as the whole person’s commitment to value and the judgment one makes in relation to that commitment of who one ought to be and what one ought to do or not do.” (p. 114) Also seen as a capacity of a fundamental ability to know good and evil; every person, regardless of past experience, or their culture or religion, has the ability to know the values and standards that guide human life. Can also be seen as a process for finding out what is involved in becoming a good person, and in how one discovers right and wrong in a particular...
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...Give an account of Aristotle’s teaching about Natural law Aristotle was the first practitioner to contribute to the creation of Natural Law as inspired by his mentor Plato he developed the relationship between Natural and conventional justice and outlined the use of Natural inclinations in Natural law. In this essay I will outline Aristotle’s contribution to Natural law. Aristotle’s works, Nicomanchean Ethics and The Politics illustrate the close between legal and political philosophy. In Nicomanchean Ethics, Aristotle argued that law supports a virtuous existence, advances the lives of individuals and promotes the ‘perfect community’. He proposed people should employ practical wisdom or active reason in order to behave in a way that is consistent with a virtuous existence. Aristotle defined justice as ‘a state of mind that encourages men to perform just actions, ‘just’ meaning ‘lawful’, ‘fair’ and ‘virtuous’. In theory, then, there exists a universal standard of natural justice which is unchangeable, but in practice there must always be a mix of natural justice and legal justice in the laws of the city. Therefore while the principles of natural justice don't change, natural justice in action varies because in applying natural justice conventional justice needs to be added. Aristotle divided ‘political’ justice into ‘natural’ and ‘conventional’ justice. According to Aristotle, the content of ‘natural’ justice (or ‘universal’ law) is set by nature, which renders it immutable...
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...Explain how Natural Law theory can be used to decide the right moral action [25] Natural law is an absolutist theory which is most commonly associated with Thomas Aquinas. It mainly relies on Aquinas’ theory that humans try to do good things and try to avoid evil in order to find fulfilment and happiness in life. However, according to Aquinas there are two types of good. There is the real good and the apparent good. The ‘real good’ is something that genuinely leads us to fulfil our purpose and achieve perfection. And the ‘apparent good’ is something that only appears good to us but it isn’t genuinely good. For example, a real good would be to study and revise for exams, whereas an apparent good would be to enjoy ourselves by watching television. We might think the second option is the real good for us but it’s the apparent good as we are not really benefiting from it. Aquinas is arguing that for a person to be happy, they must do good actions which can be one of the two types of good. He is also arguing that if humans do evil, they will be lead to the path of unhappiness. This could be interpreted as our actions determine the extent of happiness in our lives. This is known as the Synderesis Rule. Natural law in itself is based on five primary precepts which were, according to Aquinas, revealed to us by God. In defining the Primary Precepts, Aquinas was stating 'self-evident principles' that are universal and absolute - they are part of our very nature as humans, this sounds...
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...a) Explain how a follower of Natural Law theory might approach the issue surrounding abortion. The Natural Law Theory has developed over time since the era of the ancient Greeks, and it is not necessarily based on one single theory. Natural law is the belief that God has created the universe to work in certain ways. The structure of Natural Law is not accidental; it is deliberate and has important implications to the human race (this can also be used to argue the existence of God in the teleological argument). Humans have a duty to conform to Natural Law. If they do not conform it is morally bad. St Thomas Aquinas linked his idea of Natural Law with Aristotle’s view that people have a specific nature, purpose and function. Aristotle said that not only does everything have a purpose, but also it achieves supreme good when it fulfill its purpose. Aristotle stated that the supreme good for humans is to achieve happiness, which can be related to mill’s utilitarianism where our aim is to gain happiness by avoiding pain and gaining pleasure, but Aristotle did not follow the consequentialist nature of utilitarianism. Aristotle said we were to achieve the final goal by living a life of reason based on what we experience, and this follows the deontological nature of Kantian ethics. Aquinas said that humans beings have an essential rational nature given by God in order for us to live and flourish, even without God reason can discover laws that lead to human flourishing, this is...
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...EUH 2000 0010 September 11, 2003 Natural Law – Essay #1 Cicero felt that Natural law is something that was created divinely before humanity was capable of doing so for itself. It is a morality ingrained in us since creation, before there was any set government or politician to create laws. “This power is not only older than peoples and governments but is of the same age as the God who protects and rules both Heaven and earth.” Though he concedes that, “Men introduced such laws to insure the protection of citizens and states, as well as the peaceful and happy lot of mankind.”[1] So to Cicero, as I would believe to any ancient mind, since Natural Law is divine it supersedes anything man-made. It is also important to realize that these Natural Laws have lasted the test of time, if you take into consideration that most of these laws are found in the Ten Commandments. I personally feel that Natural Laws supersede any man-made law because these laws are the backbone of a society’s moral structure. Now what has to be considered is, what is Natural Law? I can concede what is considered to be some Natural Laws, do not steel, kill, covet, etc. But is it also Natural Law to not have premarital sex or to not masturbate? The fact that I can bring up these qualifications to question what is Natural Laws is probably why modern lawyers do not use them in their arguments. I can say, that I personally do not follow the covenants of Christianity or any religion similar, i.e...
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...of ur body) c) transmission (buns in ovens lol) d) protection e) maintenance (nurses and doctors) 2.knowledge(regardless of the degree or grading knowledge is satisfying) 3.pursuit of the beautiful (aesthetic) a. music b. art c. cooking d. eating e. the sublime nature f. theatre/acting/film g. writing/ poetry h.drinking 4.work- creating something with skilled labor, ordering 5.competition/play sports!!!!!!! competitive 6.peace wit/ relationships friendship marriage family serving the community social work 7.peace w/ oneself therapy (process to come 2 terms wit the things u struggle wit) 8.peace w/ a transcendent being pursuing religion 9. peace w/ natural world 10*comedy 7 levels of d.e. 1was the harm intended 2 was it unavoidable 3attempt to limit the side effects 4attunement to fairness 5" " creativity...
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...Natural Law presentation notes/ revision First Slide- Introduce Natural Law with a definition and who made the Law a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct. . Second slide- go into depth about Plato and who he was- this can be done with points and quotes about him, also include facts. • Plato is just a nickname and his actual name is Aristocles • In 388 B.C. he founded his school, the Academy, which is considered the first European university. • As a young man, Plato was not only a student—he was also a wrestler and a playwright. • Aristotle was one of Plato’s pupils at the Academy. • Plato was a student of Socrates Third Slide- Aristotle depth about who he is and what quotes and views he has on Natural Law- also include facts on who he is. • Aristotle is regarded by many as the most intelligent man to ever walk on this planet. • Aristotle went to Athens when he was 17 and lived in that city for the most of his life. • When Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE, Aristotle and other friends of Alexander the Great became unpopular. • He wrote many books and he kept notes to help teach his students. • Aristotle composed two types of works, the first is designed for the general public and the other is designed specifically for students and teachers of philosophy. Fourth Slide- How Aquinas developed the idea Key points on Aquinas and how he does natural law Key points on Aquinas and his quotes Fifth Slide- whats a primary...
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