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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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 ...
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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.