He was influenced by Aristotle’s view that humans, like all objects in this realm, have a specific purpose. He argued supreme good is experienced when we fulfil our purpose. It was argued that our supreme good is ‘eudaimonia’ or ‘wellbeing’. So, if we have in mind living such a lifestyle, influenced by reason when making moral decisions then are we not more likely to make the right moral decisions? The second is the Divine law which is important to this issue as it reflects the eternal law as it appears to us through revelation.
Explain Natural Law theory Those who have an absolutist approach to ethics have an explanation of where they can get knowledge of morality from and how humans understand right and wrong. Thomas Aquinas was a Christian philosopher and he developed an argument for Natural Law from the work of Aristotle, who said that whatever is natural is unchangeable and has the same power and effect everywhere. His theory is absolutist and deontological as it is a strict guide to be followed no matter what the situation is, meaning it is focused on the ethics around actions. The Roman Catholic Church used it for help and guidance. Aristotle asked the question of ‘how does it happen?’ and believed that every object has a purpose.
This is why God created a universe fit for human life, and why he laid down guidelines for how to live our lives. According to Christianity, each one of us is created for communion with God; God wants to know us, to love us, and to rejoice with us. Examples in the Bible are Proverbs 19: 21 and Ephesians 3: 20. The most basic principle of the Christian moral life is the awareness that every person bears the dignity of being made in the image of God. He has given us an immortal soul and through the gifts of intelligence and reason enables us to understand the order of things established in his creation.
Natural Law is an ethical theory that if you fulfil something’s natural purpose, then it is fulfilling its goal and therefore is right and just. Natural Law believes that natural order is determined by a supernatural power or being which we must follow. Natural Law was developed by Thomas Aquinas who was a Roman Catholic priest from Italy; he related Aristotle’s theory of Natural Law to Christian’s beliefs in God. Natural Law is a deontological and absolutist theory, where everything has a purpose. There are five primary precepts to Natural Law, Aquinas believed that these precepts came from God.
This is the belief that everything in the universe including all human actions and choices has a cause. Thus, all events are causally determined and theoretically predictable; you just need to know the effect of the causes. This is a mechanistic philosophy, put forward in the Cosmological argument by St. Thomas Aquinas. In addition, other philosophers agree with the illusion of moral choice such as John Locke who used a strong analogy in
Assignment 1 Jacques- Benigne Bossuet, “The Theory of Divine Right” LaDayna Franklin “Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704) is an excellent example of the “old school” of European political thought…” His belief was the monarchy system which was a political system believed to be ordained by God, gave kings the right to rule by divine right. Bossuet stated “Monarchial government is the best”. By this he is saying that there is no better form of government because kings are ordained by God and with this action there is an automatic natural order that forms this proper government. The Theory of the Divine Right aimed at instilling obedience by explaining why all social ranks were religiously and morally obliged to obey their government. The Theory of the Divine Right was directed at convincing the cultured and wealthy groups that they should serve as royal officials not try and seize power for themselves.
He said, in Summa Theologica, "Whatever man desires, he desires it under the aspect of good." Fulfilling our purpose is the only ‘good’ for humans. Natural law also implies precepts which should be followed but can also be expanded upon with secondary precepts, the primary being preserving life, having a well ordered society, producing offspring and learning about God, now these primary precepts may be expanded upon as long as they are not disobeyed. Aquinas argued that the self should be maintained. As a result, Natural Law supports certain virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance) that allow the self to fulfil its purpose.
a. Define and discuss the following traditional ethical theories of value used to determine what is right or wrong. 1. Natural Law Ethics To summarize: the paradigmatic natural law view holds that (1) the natural law is given by God; (2) it is naturally authoritative over all human beings, and (3) it is naturally knowable by all human beings. Further, it holds that (4) the good is prior to the right, that (5) right action is action that responds no defectively to the good, that (6) there are a variety of ways in which action can be defective with respect to the good, and that (7) some of these ways can be captured and formulated as general rules.
Deontology theory is the third theory that pertains to ethics. According to Boylan, “Deontology is a moral theory that emphasizes one’s duty to do a particular action just because the action, itself, is inherently right and not through any other sorts of calculations—such as the consequences of the action.”(2009) Furthermore, the utilitarianism theory unlike the deontology theory states that an action produced by the decision making process should be based on “principle”-meaning the
Examine the key concepts of Natural Moral Law or Deontology or Virtue Ethics. (18) Natural Moral Law is considered to be one of the most important theories in Ethics, it is deontological therefore it focuses more on the actions/intentions rather than the outcome of a situation, it is an absolutist theory which means that NML applies to everyone; it is also an deductive theory. It was a theory put forward by Aristotle but continued by Thomas Aquinas, they said NML is God given and those who follow it are following God’s purpose. Some key concepts of NML are the primary and secondary precepts, Aquinas’ assumptions and his law and finally proportionalism. NML is seen as objectively ideal, it is something that everyone should strive for as it is an objective truth which ties in with Moral Realism, this means there are objective truths, things that we should do/should not do because they are definitely right or wrong.