NATURAL LAW thinking which does not refer to some simple
intuition or gut feeling.
THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)
 A Dominican friar who was the
preeminent intellectual figure of
the scholastic period of the
Middle ages.
 His Magnum opus, SUMMA
THEOLOGIAE discusses many
significant points in Christian
theology.
 He was canonized in 1323
THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN STORY
The fundamental truth maintained and
elaborated by Aquinas in all his work is the
promise right at the center of Christian faith: that
we are created by God in order to ultimately
return to Him. The structure if his magnum opus
follows the trajectory of this story.
Three parts to this voluminous work:
 Our knowledge and belief to our
God
 Our pursuant to be with the Divine
 Jesus is our Savior.
THE CONTEXT OF AQUINA`S ETHICS
A full consideration of Aquina`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 passion”—
are involved in this process, and therefore
require a proper order if they are to properly
contribute to a good life.
It is also stated that, 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
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.
The Greek Heritage
NEOPLATONIC GOOD
God creates. This does not only means 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 Aquinas. 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 known
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 both truth
and knowledge, you will be right in esteeming
this other nature as more beautiful than either:
and, 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 manner the good may be said to be not only
the author of knowledge to all things known, but
of their being and essence, and yet the good is
not essence, but far exceeds in dignity and
power.
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
Neoplatonist.
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.
Through Neoplatonists like Plotinus, the
Platonic idea of the good would continue well
into Christian Middle Ages, inspiring later thinkers
and allowing it to be thought anew in a more
personal way as a creative and loving God.
ARISTOTLE’S FOUR CAUSES- It gives a way to
understand any being.
1. MATERIAL CAUSE(MATTER)- determined
by the matter that composes the
changing thing. It is composed of certain
materiality or physical stuff. It makes a
being unique.
2. FORMAL CAUSE(FORM)- due to the
arrangement, shape or appearance of the
changing thing. It makes a being a
particular kind.
3. EFFICIENT CAUSE(AGENCY/EFFICIENCY)-
consists of things apart from the thing
being changed, which interact so as to be
an agency of the change.
4. FINAL CAUSE(PURPOSE/END)- the sake
of which a thing is changing.
FOR EXAMPLE,
THE CAUSE OR EXPLANATION OF TABLE, IT IS
SOLID AND GRAINED BECAUSE IT IS MADE OF
WOOD(MATTER), IT DOES NOT COLLAPSE
BECAUSE IT IS DESIGN WITH FOUR LEGS OF
EQUAL LENGTH(FORMAL), IT OCCURS AS SUCH
BECAUSE A CARPENTER(EFFICIENT) MADE IT
FROM WOOD AND IT HAS THESE DIMENSIONS
BECAUSE OF IT IS INTENDED TO SUPPORT
OBJECTS(FINAL).
POTENCY & ACT
 A Being may carry within itself certain
potential, but these require being
actualized.
SYNTHESIS
 God is essential and essentialy good. So,
we recognize that all beings are only
possible as participating in the first
being, which is god himself.
 God’s act, like emanation of light, is the
creation of beings.
 It is possible for us to speak of him as
the first efficient cause. Also, all
beings seek to return, it is possible
for us to speak to him as the final
cause.
 It is God’s will and love that are the
cause of all things; to every existing
thing, God wills some good.
 Creation is the activity of the outpouring
or overflowing of God’s goodness.
 The goodness possessed by being
remains imperfect.
 For Aquinas, only god in the fulness 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.
 Notion of DiVINE PROVIDENCE refers to
how beings are properly ordered and
even guided toward their proper end.
This end is to rich their highest good,
and this good is to return to the
divine goodness itself.
 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.
 The particular form determines the
materiality which makes a being a
certain kind of being.
 The unique way we have been created
can be called our NATURE.
 This nature is both good and imperfect
at the same time. From god, it is
good but in its limitations, it has to be
perfected.
 This perfection means fulfilling our
nature the best we can, thus realizing
what god had intended for us to be.
We can accomplish this by fulfilling or
actualizing the potencies that are
already present in our nature.
 All beings are created by god in order to
return to him, the way the human
being is directed toward god is
unique.
 Our way of reaching God is by knowing
and loving him.
 We should not forget how the whole
community of being, which is the
universe is directed towards its
return to god.
ESSENCE
As rational beings, we have free will.
Through our capacity for reason, we are able to
judge between possibilities and to choose to
direct our actions in one way or the other." Our
actions are directed toward attaining ends or
goods that we desire.
 There are many possible desirable ends
or goods, and we act in such ways as to pursue
them. However, just because we think that a
certain end is good and is therefore desirable
does not necessarily mean it is indeed good.
Acts are rightly directed toward their
ends by reason. But this does not simply mean
that through reason we can figure out how to
pursue something that we already had
thoughtlessly supposed to be good for us; what is
necessary is to think carefully of what really is in
fact good for us.
In thinking about what is good for us, it is
also quite possible that we end up thinking
exclusively of our own good. Aquinas reminds us
that this will not do; we cannot simply act in
pursuit of our own ends or good without any
regard for other people's ends or good. We are
not isolated beings, but beings who belong to a
community. Since we belong to a community, we
have to consider what is good for the community
as well as our own good. This can be called the
common good."
A law, therefore, is concerned with the
common good. It is also necessary for rules or
laws to be communicated to the people involved
in order to enforce them and to better ensure
compliance. This is referred to as promulgation.
We can speak of law as a form of restriction and
direction of human actions in such a way that the
common good is promoted. Aquinas's own
summary of this point is worth citing: "The
definition of law may be gathered; and it is
nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the
common good, made by him who has care of the
community, and promulgated"
VARIETIES
Eternal Law
Eternal Law is the Divine Wisdom of God
which oversees the common good and governs
everything. Eternal law is God’s plan to lead all
creation towards God’s eternal salvific plan to be
holy and blameless before Him through Jesus
Christ.
Aquinas writes: "He governs all the acts
and movements that are to be found in each
single creature, so the type of Divine Wisdom, as
moving all things to their due end, bears the
character of law."
Natural Law
The human being, as rational,
participates more fully and perfectly in the law
given the capacity for reason. The unique imprint
upon us, upon our human nature by God, is the
capacity to think about what is good and what is
evil, and to choose and direct ourselves
appropriately.
So Aquinas writes: "Wherefore it has a
share of the Eternal Reason, whereby it has a
natural inclination to its proper act and end: and
this participation of the eternal law in the rational
creature is called the natural law."
Human law
Aquinas points out that while reflecting
on our human nature will provide us the precepts
of the natural law, these are quite general and
would have to be made more specific, and at the
same time more concrete in the actual operation
of human acts. For this reason, there is also
human law. Human law refers to all instances
wherein human beings construct and enforce
laws in their communities.
 animals, a desire that has to do with sexual
intercourse and the care of one's offspring. The
Divine Law intrinsic connection between the sexual act and
Aquinas asks us to recall that there is a fecundity gives rise to a number of notions of
certain form of happiness that is proportionate to what is acceptable and unacceptable in varying
our human nature, which we can obtain by degrees of contentiousness.
means of our natural principles. However, there
also is another, more complete, happiness that
surpasses human's nature, a supernatural
happiness that can be obtained through the
power of God alone. To direct us toward our
supernatural end, we had been given further
instructions in the form of divine law. Divine Law
is decreed by God in the Ten Commandments and
in the new commandments of Love taught by
Jesus Christ.

NATURAL LAW
In Common with Other Beings
In reading Aquinas, we have to consider
how we, human beings, are both unique and at
the same time participating in the community of
the rest of creation. Our presence in the rest of
creation does not only mean that we interact
with creatures that are not human, but that there
is also in our nature something that shares in the
nature of other beings. Aquinas thus identifies
first that there is in our nature, common with all
other beings, a desire to preserve one's own
being.

Aquinas tells us that it is according to the

natural law to preserve human life. We can thus
say that it would be a violation of the natural law,
and therefore unethical to take the life of
another.

In Common with Other Animals

Aquinas then goes on to say that there is

in our human nature, common with other