Jared Moreno

Midterm Exam 2

Short Answer D:

Pelaguis and Augustine debated the issue of morality and psychology of human kinds. They

debated the morality of Adam and his original sin. They debated how this sin played a role in humans

of all time. Pelaguis argued that despite Adam succumbing to temptations and committed the first sin,

his behavior does not reflect the inability to grow from it. That humans have the ability to learn from

the past and grow in morality. Each person starts fresh with their own power to determine lives instead

of being weighed by the original sin that Adam had done. In contrast, Augustine saw the sin that Adam

committed have a long hold on human kind. Humans have been cursed with this sin. Adam started a

tendency to all humans to misbehave and commit sin. Therefore, humans must be oppressed so that

they can not commit the sins. Humans must rely on powers greater than theirs for salvation and

restraint. Augustine won the argument by his power and influence. Thus, he determined the course

history. Using the state, he decided that human will must be restrained. Hobbs gave a similar argument

as Augustine. Hobbs believed that humans are evil. Humans therefore must be encourage to fall for a

higher laws so they cannot commit the evil that lies inside them. Lock, on the contrary, thought that all

humans had inherited rights. These rights gives him the freedom to develop into their own person. In

Locks view, the state is there to protect human rights and freedom. While Hobbs felt that the state is

used to restrain human freedom. Locks ideas on human rights and freedom was the foundation for the

United States constitution. As time passed in the United States, the state government grew in strength

and control over the people. There are many limitations to many rights originally granted by the

constitution. Freedom of protest is far more limited today. People now need to get permits if they want

to protest and only on certain times and places. When given the right of protest, the constitution did not

mention any limitation such as permits that are now being implemented. Habeas Corpus has been

denied to the people during the Bus administration. Habeas Corpus and many other human rights have
been denied to the people including US citizens after the attacks on 9/11. This was done through

consent of the people. In a state of fear of the attacks, people relinquish their power to the state for

security. This reaffirmed the argument of Augustine there needs to be state intervention. People need to

be prevented from committing sin and destruction.

Major Essay:

Abortion was accepted for a large period of history. During the Greek and Roman empires,

abortion was widely accepted by most philosophers including Plato and Aristotle. The only

philosophers who did not support abortion were the Pythagoreans. The Hippocrates Oath was

developed by the Pythagoreans. They believed destroying the embryo meant destroying the life.

Originally, there were not many who accepted this perspective on fetus life, but as Christianity grew in

popularity, they accepted the Oath. It was an alignment of Christine doctrine with Pythagoreans ethics.

The reason for this can be that Christianity adapted previous philosophical ideas that came from the

Gnostics, Stoics, Epicureans, and Cynics. Many of those philosophers did not accept the Christian

perspective on abortion, but many of their theories are reflected in Christianity and used as reasoning

for Christian position against abortion.

It has been asked, when does a baby or fetus becomes alive? Originally, the different views on

life believed that the fetus is alive at conception, quickening, or at birth. The Stoics did not believe that

the fetus is alive until after birth. Once the Oath was accepted, Christians did not support abortion after

quickening. Early belief is that the baby is infused with the soul. Quickening is when the soul enters the

body of the fetus. Once this soul enters, the fetus becomes alive. Quickening is noticed around the time

when the fetus first moves inside the womb. Quickening usually takes place around 40-80 days. Since

the adaptation of this belief of life at quickening, it has remained accepted up to the late 19th century.

The belief in the soul came from Gnostic's traditions. Gnostic believed that God is not of the

material world or its nature. The material world is evil. The human body is composed of a spirit and a
body. The spirit or soul is trapped in the body. Once the spirit is freed, it can return to God. This is one

reference of the soul in the human body. Human life can be defined as having a soul. The Christians

supported this belief in that humans having souls. The main difference is that the Christians believed

that world and all of Gods creations is good. The soul, being part of the world, is also good. Therefore,

killing the fetus infused with a soul can be seen as destroying a babies life. This is almost considered

murder. If a person were to commit abortion after quickening, the person who committed the abortion

receives a misdemeanor.

Natural law is apparent in many philosophies including the Cynics and the Stoics. The Cynics

philosophy of natural was later developed further by Stoics and Christianity. To the Cynics, nature was

governed by universal laws. The laws of society was developed by the people and their customs.

People should be closer to nature like animals. The closer people are to nature, the closer they are to the

universal laws. They rejected the city and state laws. They had a individualist, negative perspective to

social construct.

The Stoics supported the idea that the universe is divine. God or its spirit is everything. The

reason the world has regularity and order is that natural laws, God, governed the universe. They had a

materialistic view of God, nature, and the universe. But the universe is still controlled through natural

laws. Cynics had a negative view of the world while the Stoics had a positive view. The Stoics believed

in social laws but the early Stoics still broke away from city and state laws. The middle Stoics tried to

realign back to the city while supporting the belief in natural laws of the early Stoics.

Thomas Aquinas developed natural laws even further. He supported the idea that laws are used

to reflect God’s design. People follow laws to commit themselves to God's morality. Thomas view of

the legal system is reflected by natural law traditions originally created by the Cynics and the Stoics.

Christians had a positive view of the world. Since God created the world and said that it was good, the

people have a positive reason to be a part of it.So when they follow the natural laws, it is in the

perceptive it is good to follow these laws and to be best their commitment.

 Christians adapted natural law theories developed by Stoics for a few reasons. Christians had a

positive view of natural law and order. Christian teachings can accommodate Stoic teachings and

morality. With the view of natural law, Christians took in the Oath and adapted it to their morality. This

was easily done with the belief that the fetus had a soul during the first time it moves. Thomas Aquinas

supported this belief. Since Aquinas supported quickening, the moral standard originally developed by

Pythagorean, Stoics, Cynics, and Gnostics were adapted into natural law to the Christians. The moral

standard for abortion is that abortion before quickening was fine, but if abortion is made after

quickening, then it is a misdemeanor.

In the late 19th century, the belief in abortion before quickening changed. Abortion before

quickening has become more heavily criminalize. The new debate of when the fetus becomes alive is

either on conception, when the fetus in the womb has the potential to survive outside the womb, even if

the baby needs some artificial support, or when the baby is born. The winning argument for at the time

of heavier criminalization is when conception is made. The American Medical Association(AMA) was

people who shifted the position on abortion during the late 19th century. They made the argument that

first, the fetus is alive at conception. Second, the medical practitioners are careless of fetus life. Last,

the laws do not recognize the rights of the fetus. They claim that this view of fetus life is based on

“mistaken medical dogma.” The problem with this is that they do not realize that their own accretion is

made by their own dogma. There has never been any agreement on when the fetus becomes alive.

Theological, philosophical, and medical professionals have argued this without coming to any form of

consensus. The AMA's statement on fetus life is not based on any natural truth or law.

An argument has been made that the fetus is a person. Therefore, the fetus should be protected

under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court decided that the unborn has never been

protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and is not been fully recognized, or fully given the rights of a

person. The reason for this is that abortion has been used more freely during the 19th century so unborn
was not represented in past by the Fourteenth Amendment. Many past philosophies including the

Aristotelian theory and the Stoics did not recognize life until birth. Catholics held the view that life

does not start until after quickening. For the above reasons, the court decided that the fetus has never

been recognized or given the full rights of a person. An interesting note is that the Supreme Court

would not make their own assertion of when the fetus life begins because those in professions of

medicine, philosophy, and theology have never come to any agreement. It is not the place of the court

come up with their own answer.

In the case, Roe versus Wade, the Supreme Court stated that as long as there is the potential for

life, the state has some right of intervention. This goes despite the right to privacy, which the court said

has some limitations. Since abortion becomes more dangerous than child birth after the first trimester,

the state reserves the right regulate abortion after this period to preserve the life of the mother. Also,

once the baby has the potential to survive outside the womb, the baby is recognized the rights of a

person. This time period is referred to the “compelling” point. In this sense, the baby cannot be aborted

after the “compelling” point. The case nullifies the ideas of fetus life at conception. Abortion is allowed

before the compelling point.