Natural Law Flashcards
What two types of justice does Aristotle distinguish between?
Legal and natural justice.
What did Cicero write about law?
“True law is right reason in agreement with nature. It is applied universally and is unchanging and everlasting, there will be no different laws in Rome and Athens.”
What did Paul say in Romans 2:14-16?
The Law is “written on their hearts, their conscience bearing witness.”
How can the American declaration of independence be used to defend the idea of natural law?
It says that “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
What did Martin Luther King say about natural law?
There are two types of laws just and unjust. He talks about not obeying laws just because they are legal citing that what Hitler did was considered legal.
What did Aquinas say to do with natural law?
He came up with natural law theory, there are 4 types of law - eternal, divine, natural and human
What’s eternal law?
The mind or reason of God, this can only be seen in terms of its effects in natural law and moving all things to their just end. The wisdom of God was reflected in his creation and sustaining of nature but could not be known directly by man.
What’s divine law?
Revealed in the laws and moral precepts of scripture providing a solution to the fact that we’ve fallen. He did not believe that we were so far fallen that we were not able to think rightly about ethics and the church helps to point us in that direction. However natural and human law are still needed to suppress and supplement divine law.
Whats natural law?
It’s innate to all of nature, morality is reason thinking rightly in humans. God has ordered nature to follow the synderis rule.
What’s human law?
Aquinas taught that human law should be respected along with human authority that sought the common good. What begins in nature should come out in law although some can diverge from natural law.
What 2 things did Aquinas learn from Aristotle?
- Nature is goal directed. 2. Human possess a rational soul that can recognise God’s law
What does Aquinas use to describe the way that something has a telos?
The example of an acorn growing into an oak tree
