NATURAL LAW

Chapter III

Presented by:
Hamsirani, Samantha Nicole A.
Marcos, Kate Hyrille E.
Que, Shabelyze Camille U
Saavedra, Dennis P.
Viadnes, Gladys
Alegre, Kaye Angelie
BSMT 2B
Thomas Aquinas

• A doctor of the Roman Catholic Church

• A dominican friar who was the preeminent
intellectual figure of the scholastic period of the
Middle Ages
• His Summa Theologiae, Aquinas’s magnum opus
is a voluminous work that comprehensively
discusses many significant points in Christian
Theology.
The Context of the Christian Story
• 3 parts:
1. Aquinas speaks of God
 His Goodness, His Might and His Creative Power
2. Deals with man or the Dynamic of Human Life
 Characterized by our pursuit of happiness
3. Focuses on Jesus as our Savior
 Salvation is only possible through the presence of God’s grace
and that grace has become perfectly incarnate in the person of
Jesus.
The Context of Aquinas’s Ethics
• Puts forward that there is within us a conscience that directs
our moral thinking.
• A sense of right and wrong in us that we are obliged to obey
• We are called to heed the voice of conscience and enjoyed to
develop and maintain a life of virtue
Greek Heritage
• Neoplatonic Good
– The Republic by Plato, is often suppposed that Plato is trying to
envision the ideal society.
– The Idea of the Good by Plato, a good which is prior to all being and
is even the cause of all being, will become a source of fascination and
inspiration to later thinkers even to this day.
– The Good and The One by Plotinus, would continue well into the
Christian Middle Ages, inspiring later thinkers and allowing it to be
thought anew in a more personal way as a creative and loving God.
Aristotelian Being and Becoming
• 4 concepts which provide a way of understanding any
particular being under consideration.
• Four Causes by Aristotle
– Material Cause, possessed of a certain materiality or physical stuff
– Formal Cause, shape that makes a being a particular kind can be called
its form
– Efficient Cause, something which brings about the presence of another
being
– Final Cause, a being that has a n apparent end or goal
The Essence and Varities of Law
• Essence
— Determination of the proper measure of our acts can be referred as law.
• Varities
– Involves the assertion that the divine wisdom that directs each being
toward its proper end can be called Eternal Law.
– Instances wherein human beings construct and enforce law in their
communities, called Human Law.
– Direct us toward our supernaturral end, we had been given further
instructions in the form of Divine Law.
Natural Law
• In Common with Other Beings
– Example: Makahiya leaf fold inward and protects itself
– Aquinas tells us that it is according to the natural law to
preserve human life.
– It would be a violation of the natural law and therefore
unethical to take the life of another.
• In Common with Other Animals
– In our human nature, common with other animals, a desire that has to
do with the sexual intercourse and the care of one’s offspring.
Uniquely Human
• Aquinas presents a third reason which states that we have
an inclination to good according to the nature of our
reason.
• A Natural Inclination to know the truth about God and to
live in society.
• Presented with these natural Inclinations as bases for moral
valuation.
• Recognizing how being rational is what proper to man