Examine what is meant by natural law with reference to morality and analyse and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses

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Caroline Field

2A. Examine what is meant by natural law with reference to morality

[8 marks]

“True law is right reason in agreement with nature, it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting… one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and rule, that is God.” - Cicero, De Republica III, XXii

Natural law theory is one of the most important theories in the philosophy of Classical Realism. The theory tries to convey that everything is created for a purpose and fulfilling that purpose is the ‘good’ to which everything aims. It is therefore an absolute, or universal theory as it is applicable to all human beings, situations and places. The quotation above written by the Roman Lawyer, Cicero, formulates the classic description of natural law in his work “On The Republic”.

The concept of natural law has taken several forms. The idea began with the ancient Greek and Roman conception of a universe governed by an eternal, irreversible law and their distinction between what is moral by nature and moral merely by convention. These ancient stoic ideas can readily be seen by looking at the literature of the time, specifically “Antigone” written by Sophocles in the 5th Century BCE. In this play, Creon, the ruler of Thebes, forbids the burial of Antigone’s brother as punishment for treason. Antigone breaks Creon’s law and buries her brother, arguing that the state cannot overrule the law of the Gods, which requires the dead to be buried.

The Greek Philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in “Nicomachean Ethics” also wrote that although laws may vary from place to place, natural justice is independent and applies to everyone, solidifying the statement that natural law is an absolute ethical theory. The ancient Stoics emphasised the importance of rationality and reason that governs the world and sees human nature as part of one natural order.

Aristotle believed that everything in the universe had both an ‘Efficient Cause’ and a ‘Final Cause’. The Efficient Cause is the agent that brings something about or gets things done. For example, if I were to take a piece of wood and carve a statue from it, the efficient cause is the knife that I use. And in the case of a child growing into an adult, the efficient cause of the child’s growth would be the food and water. The Final Cause is the final aim or purpose of something, in other words, the end result. Returning to the example of the statue, the final cause would be the image I seek to create. The end result of the statue would fulfil the aim I had in my mind at the start. Both the purpose and the aim explains why the statue is as it is. In the case of the child growing into an adult, the final cause would be the adult that the child grows into.

Aristotle also believed that everything had a final ‘good’ which is achieved by fulfilling the purpose for which it was designed for, i.e. the final cause. “A Good knife is one which cuts well”.

Christian philosophers readily adapted and developed Stoic natural law theory, identifying natural law with the law of God. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275), a Dominican Priest and an important Christian philosopher and theologian, believed that natural law was the reason of divine wisdom. This is evident by means of their powers of reason. Law is the application of natural law to particular social circumstances. Like the Stoics, Aquinas believed that a positive law that violates natural law is not true law. The beliefs and writings of Aquinas were adopted by the Roman Catholic Church.

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Aquinas claimed that God created the universe and that everything has a design and a purpose that can be understood through examination of the natural world and a study of The Bible: “Everything is created to a particular design and for a particular purpose, and fulfilling that purpose is the ‘good’ towards which everything aims’. He believed that human beings are given reason and freedom so to hopefully choose to follow the good, moral way, which is God’s purpose for them. This, Aquinas called ‘Natural Law’, the understanding and following of God’s final purpose.

Aquinas believed that within the universe, ...

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