Natural Law

Aristotle
1. Telos
  1. Natural purpose
  2. Good if fulfil telos
  3. Eudaimonia
    1. Human flourishing
Aquinas
1. Purpose
  1. Reflect the image of God
2. Natural behaviour
  1. Primary precepts
    1. To learn
    2. To worship
    3. To preserve life
    4. To live harmoniously
    5. To reproduce
    6. Use our reason to work out how to fulfil these precepts
      1. Synderesis
        Secondary precepts
        Conclusions we make
        E.g. Divorce is wrong
  2. Avoid evil and pursue good
    1. Sometimes use wrongly applied reason
      1. Pursuing an "apparent good"
        But fall short of purpose
        Not evil
        Sinner
3. Hierarchy of Law
  1. Eternal Law- beyond human comprehension
    1. Divine Law- written in the Bible
      1. Natural Law- our God given reason
        State Law/Human Law
        Can be ignored if it comes into conflict with God's laws
Followers
1. Liberal followers
  1. Proportionalist
    1. Wrong to break a primary precept
      1. However, sometimes necessary
        E.g. Teenage girl raped has an abortion
    2. Weak sanctity of life argument
2. Double effect
  1. Break a primary precept trying to fulfil another
    1. Intention was good but results in an unfortunate by-product
      1. Good intention is more important than an unfortunate outcome
Deontological and teleological
1. Once we have worked out what is right it is our duty to fulfil our purpose- deontological
2. Moral behaviour is also a means to an end as we are striving to reflect the image of God- teleological

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	Created by ELeanor Turner about 8 years ago