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Natural Law, Slides of Law

Natural law is a tradition that sees basic moral principles as objective, based on nature instead of convention, and knowable to all by natural human reason. St ...

Typology: Slides

2021/2022

Uploaded on 09/12/2022

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Natural Law
Natural law is a tradition that sees basic moral principles
as objective, based on nature instead of convention, and
knowable to all by natural human reason.
St Thomas Aquinas was
the central figure in the
natural-law tradition.
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pf4
pf5

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Natural Law

Natural law is a tradition that sees basic moral principles

as objective, based on nature instead of convention, and

knowable to all by natural human reason.

St Thomas Aquinas was

the central figure in the

natural-law tradition.

Aquinas’s

moral theology

,

which was based on his Christian

faith, sees morality as part of

God’s governance of the world.

Morality’s purpose is to lead us to our final goal, whichis eternal happiness with God.

We have two ways to know the basic moral norms:human reason and the Bible.

Morality is possible because of how God created us, asrational animals with an intellect and a will.

The first precept of natural law isthat good is to be done and pursued,and evil is to be avoided. We canknow what is good by investigatingour natural (rational) inclinations.

John Finnis, a follower of Aquinas,suggests

that

there

are

seven

basic

goods (for example, knowledge andlife), that these cannot be measured ona common scale and totaled, and thatit’s always wrong to choose directlyagainst a basic good (for example, bytaking the life of an innocent person).

Natural law is more a pluralistic

tradition of doing ethics than a

precisely formulated ethical theory.

So thinkers in the natural-law tradition can

take different sides in the debate over super-

naturalism, naturalism, and intuitionism.

Natural-law thinkers usually defend a

conservative view

about

sexual morality: genital sexual relations are morally proper

only if they occur between husband and wife in a form of

sexual intercourse that is open to the procreation of children.

They typically say that any other use of sexual relationsperverts the natural, biological purpose of sex organs.

The contrasting

liberal view

rejects special sexual norms;

sexual relations are to be guided only by ordinary moralnorms, such as to keep promises and not to harm oneselfor others.

Some natural-law moderates propose instead that the basicsexual norm is to follow those rules about sexual relationsthat are required, in one’s cultural situation, to promote theintegrity of the family and the nurturing of children.