Thomas Aquinas · Theology
Aquinas’s theory that there is a moral law written into human nature, discoverable by reason - the foundation of much of Western ethics and law.
Where does morality come from? Not, for Aquinas, from arbitrary divine commands we must simply obey, nor from mere custom. He held that there is a natural law - an objective moral order built into the very nature of human beings, which our reason can read and which holds for everyone, everywhere, regardless of culture or creed. To act morally is to act in accordance with our nature as rational creatures; to act immorally is to act against it. Ethics becomes a kind of knowledge, open to reason.
How do we fill in the content of natural law? Aquinas looks to the basic inclinations of human nature, ordered from the ones we share with all things up to the ones distinctive of us. We share with all substances an inclination to self-preservation - so natural law bids us preserve life. We share with animals an inclination to reproduce and raise the young - so natural law concerns family. And uniquely as rational beings we are inclined to know the truth (especially about God) and to live in society - so natural law bids us seek knowledge, avoid ignorance, and not offend our fellows. Reason reads off the precepts from what we naturally are.
Aquinas’s scheme is elegant. At the top is the eternal law - God’s wisdom governing all creation. Natural law is the rational creature’s special participation in that eternal law: the part of God’s plan that we, uniquely, can grasp with our reason and freely follow. Human law is our application of natural law to concrete circumstances through legislation. And divine law is the additional moral guidance given by revelation (scripture), directing us to our supernatural end, which natural reason could not supply. Four levels, one continuous order, descending from God’s mind to the traffic code.
This is the opening of the lesson. The rest — the dialogue, the primary source, and the recall — is in the app.
You learned that Aquinas grounds morality in natural law derived from human nature. Explain the first precept and how the rest follow, and one serious objection, in your own words.
Leads to Hugo Grotius.
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