One key influence of natural and moral law is Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) Aristotle argued that we can discover how people should behave by studying how people do behave; observation and rational analysis of human nature is the surest foundation for judgments about it. Aristotle sees goodness in something fulfilling its nature, goodness lies in being fulfilled, flourishing, and moral wrongdoing lies in falling short, failing to fulfill human potential. One of Aristotle’s arguments is known as the ‘function argument’, in which he suggests that all human beings have a greater variety of functions than animals and plants do. Aristotle’s theory is concerned with the essence of something, when considering why an object exists, he asks the efficient cause question of ‘how did it happen?’, yet he also then asks ‘what is it for?’, which is known as the final cause, this is seen as the most important question as it relates to its purpose. His theory also concludes with the idea that perfection is reached when the object does exactly what it was invented to do.
For example, one of the Ten Commandments ‘Thou shall not kill’ should not be broken and is applied to situations such as the death penalty or abortion. This links to the divine command theory. This is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that what is moral is determined by God and that to be moral is to follow his commands. This theory claims that morality is ultimately based on God and the right action is the one that God requires. The divine commands vary in religions but in the end, they all have in common that moral obligations depend on God.
Aquinas states that common sense tells us that the universe works in such a way, that one can conclude that is was designed by an intelligent designer, God. In other words, all physical laws and the order of nature and life were designed and ordered by an intelligent designer. The argument links in with Aristotle's cosmological argument. Thomas Aquinas is saying that while human beings do exist and think for themselves, the reason why humans exist is due to an uncaused cause which made the natural laws needed for our existence. To sum it up into easier terms, Aquinas basically said that when you
Aquinas’ version was arguing from design qua regularity. He believed the world has to be designed because of the overall order of the universe that couldn’t have come about by itself or by chance, so therefore an intelligent being must have set in place, and the being must be God. In contrast, Paley believes someone designed the world because everything
Like the Puritans, he planned to combat natural inclinations by building a life of strong moral preservation. While Franklin did not have as devoted a belief in God as the Puritans, he did believe in God and believed in the importance of good deeds and services. He also believed that all crimes were punishable, like the Puritans, who believed that God gave punishments to all wrongs. Franklin listed out virtues and sought to accomplish each in a specific order. His notion of virtues differed, however, from the Puritans who believed that being close to God was most virtuous and focused on reading scripture and prayers instead of being good citizens.
There are several examples however of Aquinas' theory that disagree with the statement. Firstly, Natural law is the best approach to morality as it helps to establish commonplace rules in a society. Previously, these would have been the ten commandments, however with the development of the primary and secondary as written in Aquinas' book 'Summa Theologica'. These would, so long as people adhered to them, help people achieve what he called their 'telos' or natural purpose, which for humans is to achieve happiness and unity with God, or 'eudaimonia'. The primary precepts are a set of tenants that are vague in their interpret-ability on how they are to be executed.
The first way is Aquinas’ attempt to prove God’s existence based on logic and observations in nature. He was confident this reasonable explanation could help people who can not accept or believe in God based on faith alone. Aquinas believed this argument from ‘motion’ and the necessity of a ‘prime mover are strong logical reasons which demonstrate the absolute existence of God as the Divine Being. It is through the arguments of Aristotle’s ‘presence of change in the world,’ that Aquinas in
Virtue ethics is agent-centred ethics rather than act-centred. Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher and believed that everyone wants to live a full and happy life, this is known as eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is the idea of ideal happiness and it is the highest good, because we desire it for its own sake and not as a means to an end. In his book, Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle stated that we want to be good, and there is a difference to things that are good as means, and things that are good as ends. A good life is something inherently worth having, unlike justice which is worth having because it leads to a good life.
Explain the theory of duty in Kantian Ethics (25 marks) Kantian ethics is an absolutist theory as Kant claimed what is morally ‘good’ is constant and unchanging. Because of this, it can be a universal concept applied in different societies and cultures with the idea that an action should only be performed for duty’s sake. His approach was deontological because the idea of right or wrong was based on the action rather than the consequence, he believed that this was the only rational basis for morality and could be proven objectively, independent from emotion and opinion. As humans we have the innate ability to reason, something which we gained prior to any sensory experience in this world. This is an idea which is absolute and according to Kant, the way we decide the morality of an action.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), an English philosopher and the most prominent name in relation of the founding of utilitarianism, described utilitarianism as “the greatest happiness for the greatest felicity of people”. Bentham believed that morality did not depend on faithfulness to abstract views derived from the teachings of Jesus. He however looked upon morality as an effort to produce as much happiness as possible in the world. Moreover utilitarianism is the ethical theory embracing that the morally right course of action is the action which results in the most happiness and maximizes the overall good in the world. This indicates that utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism as what is viewed to a morally correct action is based upon the actions outcome.