Week 4

CHAPTER 3: NATURAL LAW

Dip:
Watch a short film entitled “Natural Law Short Film ”https://youtu.be/ebKj_teEvEI

Deepen:
Read the attached lecture notes on “Utilitarianism, Lesson 4”.

Do:
1. To check your understanding on the topic, do the activity to be posted and submit it back to
me using your official UZ email or in the streaming on Google Classroom (GCR).
2. Answer the Google form quiz. Please take note of the due date posted with the quiz.

Discern:
Prepare your questions, queries, or clarification, regarding our lesson today, to be discussed
next meeting
CHAPTER III
NATURAL LAW

Lesson 7                           THOMAS AQUINAS

Chapter Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. recognize how Thomas Aquinas made use of ancient Greek concepts to provide a
rational grounding to an ethical theory based on the Christian faith;
2. identify the natural law in distinction from, but also in relation to, the other types of law
mentioned by Aquinas: eternal law, human law, and divine law; and
3. apply the precepts of the natural law to contemporary moral concerns.

INTRODUCTION

In October 2016, newspapers reported that Pantaleon Alvarez, Speaker of the House of
Representatives, was intending to draft a bill which would amend the country's Family Code,
thereby allowing for the legalization of same-sex unions. This would result in the possibility of
two men together or two women together being identified as a couple with rights guaranteed
and protected by the law. However, as one newspaper report revealed, even before anything
could be formally proposed, other fellow legislators had already expressed to the media their
refusal to support any such initiative.

The reasons given in the news article vary, ranging from the opinion that seeing two men kiss is
unsightly, to the statement that there is something "irregular" about belonging to the Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community, and to the judgment that two people of the
same sex being together is unnatural.

We are used to hearing people justify done something by making the appeal that what they
maintain is what is "natural," and therefore acceptable. Likewise, people would Judge
something as unacceptable on the basis that it is supposedly "unnatural." Thus, we are no
longer surprised when we hear people condemn and label many different things as "unnatural":
maybe receiving blood transfusions, eating meat, or, as our news report shows, engaging in
sexual relations that one might consider deviant. We also realize that sometimes we might find
ourselves astonished or perplexed as to what different people might consider "unnatural."

In order to proceed, it is therefore necessary to ask: "What do the words natural and unnatural
mean?" Sometimes, the word natural" seems to be used to refer to some kind of intuition that
a person has, one which is so apparently to him that it is unquestioned for example, if woman
may claim that it is simply unnatural" to eat any kind of insect and what this means is that she
personally finds herself averse to the Idea of doing so. In other instances, the word is used to
try to justify a certain way of behaving by seeing likeness somewhere in the natural world. For
example, a man might claim that it is okay for him to have more than one sexual partner, since
in a pride of lions, the alpha male gets to mate with all the she-lions, In yet other instances, the
word "natural" is used as an appeal to something instinctual without it being directed by
reason. For example, a man may deem it all right if no were to urinate just anywhere because
after all he sees it as “natural” function of humans. Lastly, we also easily find people using the
word "natural" to refer to what seems common to them given their particular environment. For
instance, a Filipino may suppose that eating three full meals of rice and ulam every day is what
is "natural" because everyone she knows behaves in that way.

Given these varied meanings of the term “natural”, we need to find a more solid and nuanced
way to understand the term. In this chapter, we will explore how Thomas Aquinas provides this,
emphasizing the capacity for reason as what is essential in our human nature. This
understanding of human nature anchored on our capacity tor reason will become the basis of
the natural law theory, a theory which will provide us a unique way of determining the moral
status of our actions.

THOMAS AQUINAS
There have been various thinkers and systems of thought emerging throughout history
that could be said to present a natural law theory. Among them, the one we will be focusing on
is the medieval thinker Thomas Aquinas. It has to be recognized, however, that this natural law
theory is part of a larger discussion, which his moral theory is taken as a whole. This moral
theory, in turn, is part of a larger project, which is Aquinas's vision of the Christian faith. Before
we turn to the natural law theory, let us take a look at these contexts.

THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN STORY

The fundamental truth maintained and elaborated by Aquinas in all his works is the promise
right at the center of the Christian faith: that we are created by Gad in order to ultimately
return to Him. The structure of his magnum opus Summa Theologiae follows the trajectory of
this story.

There are three parts to this voluminous work. In the first part, Aquinas speaks of God, and
although vie acknowledge that our limited human intellect cannot fully grasp Him, we
nevertheless are able to say something concerning His goodness, His might, and His creative
power. Recognizing then that we are created by God, we move on to the second part, which
deals with man or the dynamic of human life. This is characterized by our pursuit of happiness,
which we should realize rests ultimately not on any particular good thing that is created by God,
but in the highest good which is God Himself. Our striving for this ultimate happiness, while
important, will not in itself bring us to this blessed state. In other words, salvation is only
possible through the presence of God's grace and that grace has become perfectly incarnate in
the person of Jesus. Thus, the third part focuses on Jesus as our Savior.

  Given that our concern here is the question of ethics, it would seem clear that what
would be of greatest interest to us is the second part or the section of this story that centers on
human life and its striving toward Gnd. However, bringing up the notion that living a good life
leads us to God could easily be misunderstood as a simple exhortation to obey certain rules as
given to us through Church doctrines or by following certain passages lifted randomly from
sacred Scriptures. In other words, we may fall into the danger of the divine command theory,
which we had explored in the first chapter. Instead, we should hope to find that there is much
greater complexity, but also coherence, to the ethics of Aquinas.

THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS'S ETHICS

A full consideration of Aquinas's ethics would require us to explore his discussion of other
matters, such as how, in our pursuit of happiness; we direct our actions toward specific ends.
We might explore how emotions -"the passions"- are involved in this process, and therefore
require a proper order if they are to properly contribute to a good life. We might explore how
our actions are related to certain dispositions (often referred to as "habits") in a dynamic way
since our actions both arise from our habits and at the same time reinforce them. We might
explore his discussion of how we develop either good or bad habits with a good disposition
leading us toward making moral choices, thereby contributing to our
moral virtue, and a bad disposition Inclining us toward making immoral choices, bringing us to
vice. The Christian life, therefore, is about developing the capacities given to us by God into a
disposition of virtue inclined toward the good.

Aquinas also puts forward that there is within us a conscience that directs our moral thinking.
This does not refer to some simple intuition or gut feeling. For Aquinas, there is a sense of right
and wrong in us that we are obliged to obey. However, he also adds that this sense of right and
wrong must be informed, guided, and ultimately grounded in an objective basis for morality.

So, we are called to heed the voice of conscience and enjoined to develop and maintain a life of
virtue. However, these both require content, so we need something more. We need a basis for
our conscience to be properly informed, and we need a clearer guidepost on whether certain
decisions we make lead us toward virtue or vice. Being told that one should heed one's
conscience or that one should try to be virtuous, does very little to guide people as to what
specifically should be done in a given situation., Thus, there is a need for a clearer basis of
ethics, a ground that will more concretely direct our sense of what is right and wrong. For
Aquinas, this would be the natural law.

We can recall how the ethical approach called the divine command theory urges a person
toward unthinking obedience to religious precepts. Given the problems of this simplistic
approach to ethics, we can contrast how the moral theory of Aquinas requires the judicious use
of reason. In doing so, one's sense of right and wrong would be grounded on something stable:
human nature itself.

We will start by exploring how Aquinas restates the Christian message, making use of a
philosophical vocabulary appropriated from the ancient Greeks. We then look at how Aquinas
speaks of the essence and also the varieties of law. From there, we will be able to explore the
precepts of the natural law.

Lesson 8                           THE GREEK HERITAGE

NEOPLATONIC GOOD
God creates. This does not only mean that He brings about beings, but it also means that He
cares for, and thus governs, the activity of the universe and of every creature. This central belief of the
Christian faith, while inspired by divine revelation, has been shaped and defined by an idea stated in the
work of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, which had been put forward a thousand years before
Aquina5. He is credited for giving the subsequent history of philosophy in one of its most compelling and
enduring Ideas: the notion of a supreme and absolutely transcendent good.

In his work The Republic, it is often supposed that Plato is trying to envision the ideal society.
But that plan is only a part of a more fundamental concern that animates the text. which is to provide an
objective basis and standard for the striving to be moral, In other words, it can be said that Plato was
trying to answer questions such as, "Why should I bother trying to be good?" and "Why cannot good' be
just whatever I say it is?" His answer, placed in the mouth of the main character Socrates, is that the
good is real and not something that one can pretend to make up or ignore.

Socrates, in discussing this, elevates the notion of the good to unprecedented heights:
The Idea of the Good
Excerpt from The Republic
Plato
Now, that which imparts truth to the knower and the power of
knowing to the knower is what I would have you term the idea of
good, and this you will deem to be the cause of science, and of truth
in so far as the latter becomes the subject of knowledge; beautiful
too, as are hath truth and knowledge, you will be right in esteeming
this other nature as more beautiful than other; arid, as in the previous
instance, light and sight may be truly said to be like the sun, and yet
not to be the sun, so in this other sphere, science and truth may be
deemed to be like the good, but not the good; the good has a place of
honor yet higher.
You would say, would you not, that the sun is not only the
author of visibility in all visible things, but of generation and
nourishment and growth, though he himself is not generation? In like
 Readers of The Republic have long been baffled by this enigmatic passage and are still trying to
figure out how exactly to interpret it. Rather than be dismissed, this idea of the good-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.

In the next centuries after Plato's time, some scholars turned to his texts and tried to decipher
the wealth of ideas contained there. Because they saw their task as basically clarifying and elaborating
on what the great thinker had already written, these later scholars are often labeled as Neoplatonists.

In the hands of the Neoplatonists, Plato's idea of the good, which is the source of all beings,
becomes identified with the One and the Beautiful. This is the ultimate reality, which is the oneness that
will give rise to the multiplicity of everything else in the cosmos. All these beings have a single goal,
which is to return to that unity.
The Good and the One
Excerpt from the Enneads
Plotinus
Still, do not, I urge you, look for The Good through any of these
other things, if you do, you will see not itself but its trace: you must form
the idea of that which is to be grasped cleanly standing to itself not in
any combination, the unheld in which all have hold, for no one is such,
yet one such there must be.
Now it is clear that we cannot possess ourselves, of the power of
this principle in its concentrated fullness: so to do one must be identical
with it but some partial attainment is within our reach.
You who make the venture will throw forward all your being but
you will never tell it entirely for that, you must yourself be the divine
Intellect in Act – and at your utmost success it will still pass from you or,
rather you from it. An ordinary vision yon may think to see the object
entire: in this Intellective act, all, less or more, that you can take to mind
you may set down as The Good.
It is The Good since, being a power it is the cause, of the
intelligent and intellective life as of life and intellect; for these grow from
it as from the source of essence and of existence, the Source e being
One, simplex and first because before it was nothing. All derives from
this; is the origin of the primal movement which does not possess and
of the repose which is but its absence of need; for neither rest nor
movement can be belong to what which has no place in which either
could occur; center, object, ground, all are alike unknown to it, for it is
before all. Yet, its Being s not limited; what is there to set bounds to it?
Nor, on the other hand, it is infinite in the sense of magnitude; what

Through Neoplatonists like Plotinus, the Platonic idea of the good would continue well into the
Christian Middle Ages, inspiring later thinkers and allowing it to he thought anew in a more personal
way as a creative and loving God.

ARISTOTELIAN BEING AND BECOMING

First, we recognize that any being we can see around is corporeal, possessed of a certain
materiality are physical "stuff," We can refer to this as the material cause. A being is individuated - it
becomes the unique, individual being that it is-because it is made up of this particular stuff, Yet, we also
realize that this material takes on a particular shape: so a bird is different from a cal, which is different
from a man. The "shape” that makes a being a particular kind can be called its form. Thus, each being
also has a formal cause.

One can also realize that a being does not simply "pop up" from nothing, but comes from
another being which is prior to it. Parents beget a child. A mango tree used to be a seed that itself came
from an older tree. A chair is built as the product of a carpenter. Thus, there is something which brings
about the presence of another being. This can be referred to as the efficient cause. Also, since a being
has an apparent end or goal, a chair to be sat on, a pen for writing, a seed to become a tree or a child to
become an adult, one can speak of the final cause of each being. Identifying these four causes-material,
formal, efficient, and final-gives a way to understand any being.
Four Causes
Excerpt from the Physics
Book II Chapter 3; 194b27-195a5
Aristotle
Now that we have established these distinctions, we must proceed
to consider causes, their character, and number. Knowledge is the
object of our inquiry and men do not think they know a thing till they
have grasped the "why" of (which to grasp the primary cause). So
clearly we too must do this as regards both coming and passing away
and every kind of physical change, in order that, knowing their principle,
we may try to refer to these principles each of our problems.
In one sense, then, (1) that out of which a thing comes to be and
which persists, is called "cause," for example, the bronze of the statue,
the silver of the bowl, and the genera of which the bronze and the silver
are species.
In another sense (2) the term or the archetype, that is, the
statement of the essence and it’s genera rte called causes (e.g. of the
octave the relation of 2:1, and generally number), and the parts in the
definition.
Again (3) the primary source of the change or coming to rest; for
example, the man who gave advice is a cause, the father is cause of the
child, and generally what makes of what is made and what causes
change of what is changed.
Again (4) in the sense of end or “that for the sake of which” a thing
is done, for example, health is the cause of walking about. (Why is he
walking about?” we say, “To be healthy,” and having said that, we think

Of course, it is not a case of a being that is something which is already permanently set as it is
and remains forever unchanging. So in addition to describing a being, Aristotle also has to explain to us
the process of becoming or the possibility of change that takes place in a being, A new pair of principles
is introduced by him, which we can refer to as potency and act. A being may carry within itself certain
potentials, but these require being actualized. A puppy is not yet a full-grown dog. These potencies are
latent in the puppy and are actualized as the puppy grows up and achieves what it is supposed to be.
The process of becoming or change - can thus be explained in this way. Understanding beings, how they
are and how they become or what they could be, is the significant Aristotelian contribution to the
picture which will be given to us by Aquinas.

SYNTHESIS
The idea of a transcendent goad prior to all being resurfaces in Aquinas in the form of the good
and loving God, who is Himself the fullness of being and of goodness; as Aquinas puts It, God is that
which essentially is and is essentially good.' So, we recognize that all beings are only possible as
participating in the first being, which is God Himself God's act, like an emanation of light, Is the creation
of beings.

Insofar as God is that from which all beings come, it is possible for us to speak of Him as the first
efficient cause." Insofar as God is that toward which all beings seek to return, it is possible for us to
speak of Him as the final cause."We see here the beginning of the synthesis by noting how the
Neoplatonic movement from and back toward the transcendent is fused with the Aristotelian notion of
causes.

It must be noted, though, that this is not some mechanistic unthinking process It is God's will
and love that are the cause of all things; to every existing thing. God wills same good." Creation
therefore is the activity of the outpouring or overflowing of God's goodness. Since each being in this way
participates in God's goodness, each being is in some sense good.

However, while beings are good because they are created by God, the goodness possessed by
being remains imperfect, "For Aquinas, only God in the fullness of His being and goodness is perfect all
other beings are participating in this goodness, and are good to that extent, but are imperfect since they
are limited in their participation.” But once again, God did not create us to simply be imperfect and to
stay that way as He leaves us alone. Instead, God, In His infinite wisdom, directs how we are to arrive at
our perfection. The notion of divine providence refers to how beings are properly ordered and even
guided toward their proper end; this end, which is for them to reach their highest good, is to return to
the divine goodness’ itself.

God communicates to each being His perfection and goodness. Every creature then strives to its
own perfection; thus the divine goodness is the end of all actions. All things come from God and are
created by Him in order to return to Him.

We now need to recall that beings are created by God in a particular way. It is not accidental
how beings emerge into existence; each being is created as a determinate substance, as a particular
combination of form and matter. This applies to all beings, including man. The particular form
determines the materiality which makes a being a certain kind of being: the unique way that we have
been created can be called our nature.

This nature, as a participation in God's goodness, is both good and imperfect at the same time.
Coming from God, it is good, but in its limitations, it has yet to be perfected. This perfection means
fulfilling our nature the best we can, thus realizing what God had intended for us to be. We accomplish
this by fulfilling or actualizing the potencies that are already present in our nature.

While all beings are created by God in order to return to Him, the way the human being is
directed toward God is unique. Given that we are beings with a capacity for reason, our way of reaching
God is by knowing and loving him." It is of key importance then that the presence of a capacity for
reason is the prime characteristic of the kind of beings we are, and how that capacity for reason is the
very tool which God had placed in our human nature as the way toward our perfection and return to
Him.

This applies not only to an individual human being, but also to all humankind. But we should not
forget how the whole community of being, which is the universe itself, is directed toward its return to
God. This is not, as mentioned earlier, an unthinking process, but is the very work of divine reason itself
or God's will, We can think, then, of the whole work of creation as divine reason governing a community
toward its end. Under the governance of the Divine, beings are directed as to haw their acts are to lead
them to their end, which is to return to Him, We shall now try to understand this dynamic once again,
but this time think of it in terms of law.