believed that everything in the universe had both an ‘effective
cause’ and a ‘final cause’, and Aquinas combined this with his
Christian belief that everything which exists does so for a reason.
Aristotle had believed that something could be called ‘good’ if it
fitted its purpose; a good knife is one which cuts well, for example.
He said that the fulfilment of that purpose and nature is the
supreme Good.
The Natural Law Tradition says that God created the world, its
order and purpose and human beings have a rational nature and are
able to discover purpose of human life. Although this raises the
problem of how we know what the purposes of human life are. But
for Aquinas it was not an unanswerable question. As well as being
able to look to the Bible and to the teachings of the Church to find
out God’s purposes in creation, but also the human body. The
design of a male and female body clearly shows that humans were
created to reproduce. As well as reproducing, human beings fulfil
their purpose by learning, having a role in an ordered society and
to worship God. These specific purposes are purposes which we
naturally tend to fulfil. General purpose of human life by the
Natural Law is blessed immortality. These are known as primary
principles. Reason can determine the means required to fulfil
purposes of human life and there is a specific way of fulfilling
these principles, so we make up rules that try to fulfil the primary
principles. These are known as secondary precepts.
Natural means that you find objective values by examining human
nature. Everything had got a design and to fulfil a purpose,
for this order and purpose is natural and for people to fulfil this
nature is considered as good..
b) Natural Law is a fair way of making moral decisions. Discuss.
Natural Law has its advantages. Natural Law is not just an
expression of opinion, but a way of asserting that there is
an absolute authoritative code of moral behaviour which
applies to everyone, it is rational and relevant for
everybody. This can be considered as an absolutist
approach. Therefore it is possible for one society to judge
another. The Christian version of the theory of Natural Law
is seen as a way of combining faith with reason. The desire
to follow the will of God and to follow the commandments
shows humanity’s ability to reason. Natural Law theory
appeals to many peoples instinct that right and wrong
depends on more than just personal opinion. The fact that
different societies come to the same conclusions about the
existence of natural law shows the ability to reason is part
of human nature.
On the other hand, I do not agree with this statement, for
many reasons. Thomas Aquinas took it for granted that God
created the world for a purpose, but not everyone would
agree with this. It assumes a lot of things that people may
disagree with, such as the existence of God. Many modern
thinkers such as Camus and Dawkins claim that the
universe is ‘absurd’; it does not have a reason and that it
came by chance and not because of any particular reason.
Aquinas claims that humanity and the world was created
for a purpose, but even if it was, it is not self-evident what
this purpose is. There is no actual proof of these purposes
Aquinas tells us. Ideas about what is and is not natural
change between generations, and are different in different
cultures.
Peter Vardy tries to see the Natural Law as something we
can work with, but he says if you want to apply it to
problems, its difficult.
From a religious perspective, theologically, the natural law
tradition has always been criticized by Protestants, it over
estimates reason and under estimates revelation.
