THOMAS AQUINAS
There have been various thinkers and systems of
thought emerging throughout history that could be
said to present a natural law theory. Among them,
the one we will be focusing on is the medieval
thinker Thomas Aquinas. It has to be recognized,
however, that this natural law theory is part of a
larger discussion, which is his moral theory taken
as a whole. This moral theory, in turn, is part of a
larger project, which is Aquinas's vision of the
Christian faith. Before we turn to the natural law
theory, let us take a look at these contexts.
THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN STORY
The fundamental truth maintained and
elaborated by Aquinas in all his works is
the promise right at the center of the
Christian faith: that we are created by
God in order to ultimately return to Him.
The structure of his magnum opus Summa
Theologiae follows the trajectory of this
story.
There are three parts to this
voluminous work. In the first part,
Aquinas speaks of God, and although
we acknowledge that our limited
human intellect cannot fully grasp
Him, we nevertheless are able to say
something concerning His goodness,
His might, and His creative power.
Recognizing then that we are created
by God, we move on to the second
part, which deals with man or the dynamic of
human life. This is characterized by our pursuit
of happiness, which we should realize rests
ultimately not on any particular good thing that
is created by God, but in the highest g st good
which is God Himself. Our striving for this
ultimate happiness, while important, will not in
itself bring us to this blessed state. In other
words, salvation is only possible through the
presence of God's grace and that grace has
become perfectly incarnate in the person of
Jesus. Thus, the third part focuses on Jesus as
our Savior.
Given that our concern here is the question of ethics,
it would seem clear that what would be of greatest
interest to us is the second part or the section of this
story that centers on human life and its striving toward
God. However, bringing up to God could easily be
misunderstood as a simple exhortation to obey certain
rules as given to us through Church doctrines or by
following certain passages lifted randomly from sacred
Scriptures. In other words, we may fall into the danger
of the divine command theory, which we had explored
in the first chapter. Instead, we should hope to find
that there is much greater complexity, but also
coherence, to the ethics of Aquinas.
Hailedas a doctor of the Roman Catholic
Church, Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar
who was the preeminent Intellectual figure of
the scholastic period of the Middle Ages,
contributing to the doctrine of the faith more
than any other figure of his time. His Summa
Theologiae, Aquinas's magnum opus, is a
voluminous work that comprehensively discusses
many significant points in Christian theology. He
was the notion that living a good life leads us
canonized in 1323.
THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS'S ETHICS
A full consideration of Aquinas'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 passions"-are
involved in this process, and therefore require a
proper order if they are to properly contribute to
a good life. We might explore how our actions
are related to certain dispositions (often referred
to as "habits") in a dynamic way since our actions
both arise from our habits and the same time
reinforce them.
We might explore his discussion of how we
develop either good or bad habits with a
good disposition leading us toward making
moral choices, thereby contributing to our
moral virtue, and a bad disposition
inclining us toward making immoral
choices, bringing us to vice. The 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 thinking. This does not refer to
some simple intuition or gut feeling.
For Aquinas, there is a sense of right
and wrong in us that we are obliged to
obey. However, he also adds that this
sense of right and wrong must be
informed, guided, and ultimately
grounded in an objective basis for
morality.
So, 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. Being told that one should
heed one's conscience or that one should try to be
virtuous, does very little to guide people as to what
specifically should be done in a given situation. Thus,
there is a need for a clearer basis of ethics, a ground
that will more concretely direct our sense of what is
right and wrong. For Aquinas, this would be the
natural law.
We can recall how the ethical approach
called the divine command theory urges
a person toward unthinking obedience to
religious precepts. Given the problems of
this simplistic approach to ethics, we can
contrast how the moral theory of Aquinas
requires the judicious use of reason. In
doing so, one's sense of right and wrong
would be grounded on something stable:
human nature itself.
We will start by exploring how
Aquinas restates the Christian
message, making use of a
philosophical vocabulary appropriated
from the ancient Greeks. We then
look at how Aquinas speaks of the
essence and also the varieties of law.
From there, we will be able to
explore the precepts of the natural
law.
