Natural Law Theory The Greek Heritage

Neoplatonic Good
• Thomas Aquinas
• Vision of the Christian faith.
• This central belief of the Christian
• This understanding of human
faith, while inspired by divine
nature anchored on our capacity for
revelation, has been shaped and
reason will become the basis of the
defined by an idea stated in the work
natural law theory, a theory which
of the ancient Greek philosopher
will provide us a unique way of
Plato, which had been put forward a
determining the moral status of our
thousand years before Aquinas.
actions.
THE IDEA OF THE GOOD
The Context of Aquinas’s Ethics
Excerpt from The Republic Plato
• In our pursuit of happiness, we
direct our actions toward specific • This idea of the good—a good which
ends. We might explore how is prior to all being and is even the
emotions—“the passions”—are cause of all being—will become a
involved in this process, and source of fascination and inspiration
therefore require a proper order if to later thinkers even to this day.
they are to properly contribute to a • Plato’s idea of the good, which is
good life. the source of all beings,becomes
• The Christian life, therefore, is about identified with the One and the
developing the capacities given to us Beautiful. This is the ultimate
by God into a disposition of virtue reality, which is the oneness that will
inclined toward the good. give rise to the multiplicity of
• Sense of right and wrong must be everything else in the cosmos. All
informed, guided, and ultimately these beings have a single goal,
grounded in an objective basis for which is to return to that unity.
morality.
THE GOOD AND THE ONE • there also is another, more complete,
happiness that surpasses human’s
Excerpt from the Enneads Plotinus
nature, a supernatural happiness that
• the Platonic idea of the good would can be obtained through the power of
continue well into the Christian God alone. To direct us toward our
Middle Ages, inspiring later thinkers supernatural end, we had been given
and allowing it to be thought a new further instructions in the form of
in a more personally way as a divine law.
creative and loving God.
• Eternal law refers to what God wills
for creation, how each participant in
Aristotelian Being and Becoming
it is intended to return to Him. Given
4 CAUSES: our limitations, we cannot grasp the
fullness of the eternal law.
• Material cause- materiality or
• A new pair of principles is
physical “stuff”.
introduced by him, which we can
• Formal cause- “shape” that makes a
refer to as potency and act. A being
being a particular kind.
may carry within itself certain
• Efficient cause-brings about the
potentials, but these require being
presence of another being.
actualized.
• Final cause-a being has an apparent
• The process of becoming—or
end or goal.
change—can thus be explained in
• The divine command theory urges
this way. Understanding beings, how
a person toward unthinking
they are and how they become or
obedience to religious precepts.
what they could be, is the significant
Given the problems of this simplistic
Aristotelian contribution to the
approach to ethics, we can contrast
picture which will be given to us by
how the moral theory of Aquinas
Aquinas.
requires the judicious use of reason.
 • All beings ultimately return to God. • These are goods, and we act in a
As we live our own life, we fulfill certain way to pursue them, so goods
the nature that is assigned to us – i.e., are sometimes referred to as the ends
becoming more human as time of actions.
passes by; as becoming human is the • We are not isolated beings, but
purpose set to man.As with other beings who belong to a community.
beings, returning to God ultimately Since we belong to a community, we
also applies. This is not, as have to consider what is good for the
mentioned in the previous module, community as well as our own good.
an unthinking process, but is the very This can be called the common
work of divine reason itself or God’s good.
will. We can think,then, of the whole • We should recognize the proper
work of creation as divine reason measure or the limits in our actions
governing a community toward its that would allow us to direct our acts
end. Under the governance of the in such a way that we can pursue
Divine, beings are directed as to how ends, both our own and also that of
their acts are to lead them to their others, together. The determination
end,which is to return to Him. We of the proper measure of our acts
shall now try to understand this can be referred to as law.
dynamic once again, but this time • Human law refers to all instances
think of it in terms of law. wherein human beings construct and
enforce laws in their communities.
The Essence and Varieties of Law
Given the larger picture of Aquinas’s
• we are able to judge between view, one would have a basis for
possibilities and to choose to direct assessing the validity or invalidity of
our actions in one way or the other. a human law: whether or not it
Our actions are directed toward conforms to the natural law. Insofar
attaining ends or goods that we as a human law goes against what
desire. We work on a project to nature inclines us toward, it is not
complete it. We study in order to properly speaking a law—in the
learn. ideal sense of directing us to the
 common good—but instead is unjust the formation of one’s character
and can be called a matter of brought about by determining and
violence. doing virtuous acts. The two major
thinkers of Ancient Greece, Plato
Key Words
and Aristotle, had discourses
• Idea of the Good concerning virtue. But Aristotle’s
• Material Cause book entitled Nicomachean Ethics is
• Formal Cause the first comprehensive and
• Efficient Cause programmatic study of virtue ethics.

• Final Cause • Aristotle begins his discussion of

• Potency ethics by showing that every act that

• Act a person does is directed toward a

• Natural Law particular purpose, aim, or what the

Greeks called telos.
• Eternal Law
• The good is considered to be the
• Divine Law
telos or purpose for which all acts
• Human Law
seek to achieve.

• Virtue ethics
• Happiness for Aristotle is the only
• Concerned primarily with the task of self-sufficient aim that one can
developing a good character. aspire for.The true measure of well-
being for Aristotle is not by means of
• to promote the maturity of the richness or fame but by the condition
character of the person. Building a of having attained a happy life.The
good character is a task and happiness is the highest end and
responsibility of every person good that humans aspire for, there
are various opinions on what
• is the ethical framework that is specifically is the nature of the
concerned with understanding the ultimate telos of a person.
good as a matter of a person.Virtue
ethics, on the other hand, focuses on
 • According to Aristotle, older that govern the universe (e.g.,
individuals would agree that the general theory on the origins of
highest purpose and the ultimate things). It helps one understand in
good of man is happiness, or for the general the meaning of life.
Greeks, eudaimonia. 2. Practical wisdom, on the other
• “Madaling maging tao, mahirap hand, is an excellence in knowing
magpakatao” the right conduct in carrying out a
Aristotle’s thoughts on the function particular act. In other words, one
of a good person. Any human being can attain a wisdom that can provide
can perform the activity of reason; us with a guider on how to behave in
thus, being human is achievable. our daily lives.
Therefore, the task of being human • A moral person habitually chooses
becomes more difficult because the good and consistently does good
doing such activity well takes more deeds. It is in this constant act of
effort on the part of the person. choosing and doing the good that a
person is able to form his character.
Virtue As Excellence • The Filipino term pag-uugali
precisely reflects the meaning of
• Excellent way of doing things is moral character. One can have
called virtue or arete by the Greeks. mabuting pag-uugali (good
The two virtues: character) or masamang pag- uugali
1. Moral, which concerns the act of (bad character).
doing,
Moral Virtue and Mesotes
2. Intellectual, which concerns the
act of knowing. Mesotes

Two ways by which one can attain • the mesotes or the middle measure of
intellectual excellences: an action, feeling, or passion.
• is constantly moving depending on
1. Philosophic wisdom deals with
the circumstance where he is in.The
attaining knowledge about the
mean is not the same for all
fundamental principles and truths
individuals.
 • determines whether the act applied is
not excessive or deficient.
• Targeting the middle entails being
immersed in a moral circumstance,
understanding the experience, and
eventually, developing the
knowledge of identifying the proper
way or the mean to address a
particular situation.

Moral virtue

• "a state of character concerned with

choice, lying in a mean, that is, the
mean relative to us, this being
determined by a rational principle,
and by that principle by which the
mand of practical wisdom would
determine it”
• The rational faculty that serves as a
guide for the proper identification of
the middle is practical wisdom.

• Virtue is the good in

between vices.