CHAPTER iii

NATURAL
LAW
MEMBE
RS:
 Cabrera, Claire Jane
 Kintasen, Thommy
 Lacaste, Mohammad Alzather
 Omane, Alren Mie
 Russel, Ike

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1
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION

 October 2016 – Speaker of the House of Representatives

Pantaleon Alvarez intended to draft a bill which would
amend the country’s Family code, allowing the
legalization of same-sex unions

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INTRODUCTION
 “What do the words natural and unnatural mean?”

1. “Natural” seems to be used to refer to some kind of

intuition that a person has.

2. “Natural” is used to try to justify a certain way of behaving

by seeing its likeness somewhere in the natural world.

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INTRODUCTION
 “What do the words natural and unnatural mean?”

3. “Natural” is also used as an appeal to something instinctual

without it being directed by reason

4. “Natural” may also refer to what seems common to them

given their particular environment

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2 THOMAS
AQUINAS
THOMAS AQUINAS

 Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

• Hailed as doctor of the Roman Catholic Church

• Dominican friar
• Aquinas’ magnus opus, Summa Theologiae
• Canonized in 1323

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✗ “The center of the Christian faith is that we are created
by God in order to ultimately return to him”

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THE CONTEXT OF THE
CHRISTIAN STORY
 3 Parts of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae

1. Aquinas speaks of God, and although we acknowledge

that out limited human intellect cannot fully grasp Him, we
nevertheless are able to say something concerning His
goodness, His might, and His creative power.
2. Our pursuit of happiness
3. Jesus as our Savior

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THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’
ETHICS
 There is a conscience within us that directs our moral
thinking
 For Aquinas, there is a sense of right and wrong in us that
we are obliged to obey.
 Sense of right and wrong must be informed, guided, and
ultimately grounded in an objective basis for morality
 One’s sense of right and wrong would be grounded on
something stable: human nature itself.

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THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’
ETHICS

 Precepts of the Natural Law

 The Greek Heritage

 Essence and Varieties of Law

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3 THE GREEK
HERITAGE
NEOPLATONIC GOOD
 “God Creates”
- serves as the central belief of the Christian Faith.
- “He” cares for, governs, and bring about every being
and activity in the universe.

 Plato
- Notion of a supreme and absolutely transcendent
good.

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NEOPLATONIC GOOD
- “The Republic”, his work:
*has shaped and defined the idea of good.
*envisioned his ideal society.
*is to provide an objective basis and standard for
striving to be Moral.
*shows that the good is real and not something that one
can make up or ignore.

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NEOPLATONIC GOOD
 “Why should I bother trying to be good?”

 “Why cannot ‘good’ be just whatever I say it is?”

 The Idea of the Good (Excerpt from The Republic by

Plato)

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 “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 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 honour yet higher.

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 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 essence in dignity and power.”

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NEOPLATONIC GOOD

- The readers of Plato’s work were baffled by the passage and

how to interpret it.

-Thus, they formed the idea that good is prior to all being
and is even the cause of all beings, which has become an
inspiration to NEOPLATONISTS in the later eras.

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NEOPLATONIC GOOD
 The Good

- The One and The Beautiful

-This Platonic idea worked its way through the Christian

Middle Ages, which then allows it to be thought in more
personal way as a “Creative and Loving God”.

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4 ARISTOTELIAN
BEING AND
BECOMING
being
 FOUR CONCEPTS/CAUSES

1. Material Cause
Example: Bronze of the Statue; Silver of the bowl

2. Formal Cause
Example: Bird is not the same as cat.
Cat is also different from a dog.

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being
 FOUR CONCEPTS/CAUSES

3. Efficient Cause
Example: A mango tree comes from a seed, where seed also
comes from an older tree.

4. Final Cause
Example: A chair to be sat on
A seed to become a tree

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BECOMING
 It is the possibility of change that takes place in a being.
> POTENCY AND ACT
A principle that supports the definition of Becoming.
Example: A puppy

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5
SYNTHESIS
SYNTHESIS

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SYNTHESIS
 God created Beings
(e.g humankind, animals…)

 Beings were created by God in a particular and unique way

A combination of form and matter

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SYNTHESIS
 God created Beings with a goal to be achieved
Example: Humans
-humans were created with a goal to achieved its own
perfection

 God created Beings in order to return to him

The notion of the divine providence refers to how beings are
properly guided and ordered towards their proper end.

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6 THE ESSENCE
AND VARIETIES
OF LAW
✗ “It is an ordinance of reason for the common good,
made by him who has care of the community, and
promulgated”

– Thomas Aquinas

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ESSENSE OF LAW
 LAW; ORDINANCE OF REASON

 LAW; FOR THE COMMON GOOD

 LAW; PROMULGATION

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ESSENSE OF LAW
LAW; ORDINANCE OF REASON

 As rational beings, we have free will. Our actions are

directed toward attaining ends or goods that we desire.
 Acts are rightly directed toward their ends by reason.

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ESSENSE OF LAW
LAW; FOR THE COMMON GOOD

 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 community.
Thus, we have to consider what is good for the community as
well as our own good.
 The determination of the proper measure of our acts can be
referred to as Law

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ESSENSE OF LAW
LAW; PROMULGATION

 It is necessary for rules or laws to be communicated to the people

involved in order to enforce them and to better ensure
compliance.

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VARIETIES OF LAW
 ETERNAL LAW

 NATURAL LAW

 HUMAN LAW

 DIVINE LAW

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VARIETIES OF LAW
ETERNAL LAW

 “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”
-Thomas Aquinas

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VARIETIES OF LAW
ETERNAL LAW
 “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”
-Thomas Aquinas
 Refers to what God wills for creation, how each participant in it is
intended to return to Him.
 Both rational and irrational creatures are participating in the
Eternal Law

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VARIETIES OF LAW
NATURAL LAW

“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 a
Natural Law” -Thomas Aquinas

 “DO GOOD, AVOID EVIL”

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VARIETIES OF LAW
HUMAN LAW

 Refers to all instances wherein human beings construct and

enforce laws in their communities.
 one would have the basis for assessing the validity or invalidity of
a human law: whether or not it conforms to the natural law

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VARIETIES OF LAW
DIVINE LAW

 Refers specifically to the instances where we have precepts or

instructions that come from divine revelation.
 Ten Commandments

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7
NATURAL LAW
NATURAL LAW
 The participation of the internal law in the rational creature is
called the natural law.

 3 Inclinations:
 In man there is, first an inclination to good in accordance with
nature.
 There is in man that pertain to him more especially.
 There is in man an inclination to good

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IN COMMON WITH OTHER
BEINGS
 There is in our nature something that shares in the nature of
other beings.
 Acts for own survival

 A desire that has to do with sexual intercourse and the cares

of one's offspring.

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Thank
you!
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