Natural law

Natural law

1. Development

   • Developed by Thomas Aquinas from ideas from Aristotle
     • Four causes
       • material cause: What something is made from
       • Efficient cause: how it was made and who by, such as a carpenter makes a table.
       • Formal cause: what it looks like such as a table has four legs and a top
       • Final cause: What is it's purpose or "telos"
   • Deontological theory
   • Absolutist theory
   • Can be situationist in certain situations, such as when considering the secondary precepts
   • Religious theory

2. Secondary precepts

   • Don't kill
   • No contraception
   • Follow the laws
   • Do your homework
   • Go to church
   • Subjective Concept
   • Derived from the primary precepts
   • Relativist Concept

3. Real Goods

   • An act which is actually good for a person such as if they were to spend most of their time revising for exams then they will get good results and then have a good lif, which is good for them.

4. Virtues

   • Cardinal Virtues
     • Non - religious virtues
     • Fortitude
       • Strength of mind, courage to deal with adversity
     • Prudence
       • Ability to govern and discipline yourself through the use of reason
     • Temperance
       • Moderation through action, thought and feeling
     • Justice
       • A concept of moral rightness, which is based on ethics
   • Theological Virtues
     • Faith
       • The belief of goodness and trustworthiness in a person
     • Hope
       • A belief in a positive outcome in a certain situation and in certain circumstances
     • Charity
       • The practice of benevolent giving and caring

5. Primary Precepts

   • Preservation of human life
   • Reproduction
   • Teaching of the youth
   • worship of God
   • living in an ordered society
   • Absolutist Concept
   • Deontological concept

6. Apparent Goods

   • Either a god act and bad intention such as Donating to charity so that you can influence the charity to meet your own needs, or Stealing food from a shop so that you can feed a hungry child
   • Interior acts
     • An act in which has a bad intention but the act itself is good.
   • Exterior acts
     • An act in which the act itself is bad however the intention is good, such as stealing to feed hungry children
   • Something which could appear to be good, however in actual fact is bad for them, such as a college student which spends all of their time clubbing and partying rather than revising so that will lead to a poorer life and is not as good.