Lecture 2: Virtue Ethics

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Lecture 2 Virtue Ethics Introduction to
Natural Law Theory
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Basic Framework of Virtue EthicsWhat type of a
person should you be?

• Premise 1 An action is right iff it is what a
  virtuous agent would do in similar circumstances.
• Premise 1a A virtuous agent is one who acts
  virtuously, i.e., one who has and exercises the
  virtues.
• Premise 2 A virtue is a character trait a human
  being needs to flourish or live well.

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Overview of Ethical Systems Virtue Ethics
Rather than focusing on what we ought to do,
Virtue ethics offers a distinctive approach
whereby we focus on human character asking the
question, What should I be? Thus, ethical life
involves envisioning ideals for human life and
embodying those ideals in ones life. Virtues
are ways in which we embody those ideals.
Plato (c.427-347c) To be virtuous we must
understand what contributes to our overall good
have our desire (appetitive workers), spirit
(warriors), reason (ruler-guardians) educated
properly so they will aggregate with the guidance
provided by the rational part of the soul (Books
2 3 of Republic). When these 3 parts of the
soul conflict with each other, it might move us
to act in ways that go against the greater good
(become incontinent).
Virtue is an excellence of some sort. Originally
the word meant strength and referred to as
manliness. In Aristotles ethics (arete) is
used which is trans. as excellences of various
types.
Socrates Virtue is Knowledge. No one
intentionally pursues what is wrong. Ignorance
and forgetfulness are at fault when one does
something wrong. Plato (c. 427-347) is concerned
with the quality of a persons inner state he
prized beauty, health, harmony, strength of a
soul as the virtues we should emulate. We must
have a well-ordered soul whereby our appetites
(temperance), emotions (courage), and reason
(wisdom) operate in their respective roles. When
reason governs, justice manifests itself from out
of the well-ordered person. Aristotle (384-322)
The function of man is reason (the good of the
thing is when it performs its function well)
which is peculiar to him. Thus, the function of
man is reason and the life that is distinctive of
humans is the life in accordance with reason. If
the function of man is reason, then the good man
is the man who reasons well This is the life of
excellence (eudaimonia human flourishing
well-being).
Aristotle says there are 2 types of virtue
intellectual virtues excellences of the mind
(e.g., ability to understand, reason, judge
well) moral virtues learned by repetition
(e.g., practicing honesty we become honest. To be
virtuous requires knowledge, practice,
consistent effort at character building.
Aristotle Must have knowledge, second he must
choose the acts and choose them for their own
sakes, finally his actions must proceed from a
firm character (1105a).
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Overview of Ethical Systems Plato (427-347
B.C.)
Plato believed our natural desires are greedy and
depraved. Thus, they must be held in tight
check by the powers of reason. He compared the
human soul to a city-state made up of
ruler-guardians, guardians, and the
peasants/artisans. Every reality is an
archetype of a corresponding eternal form. The
goal of life is to actualize ones true nature
together with ones many innate potentialities.
So long as the individual is governed by the
power of reason, and reason is assisted by
courage and will power (guardians), the unruly
desires can be suppressed.
If reason for a moment lets down its guard, then
the desires will exert their power, seize
control, and lead the person to corruption and
immorality.
The highest good is the well-ordered whole to
which each part contributes according to its own
capacity. A thing in reality is good insofar as
it participates in corresponds to the form of
the good (which is the high point of the forms).
4 primary integrated virtues Wisdom corresponds
to reason courage corresponds to the will
temperance, corresponds to desire justice
links individual to society.
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Main Points to Know

• Plato writes dialogues rather than philosophical
  treatises. Hence, most of his philosophical
  positions are voiced through the character of
  Socrates. Even though Socrates was Plato's actual
  teacher, the positions and doctrines
  traditionally attributed to Socrates are actually
  Plato's account of his teacher. Socrates never
  wrote anything.
• Plato advances a teleological conception of
  morality, "we live the good life insofar as we
  perform our distinctively human function well."

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Main Points to Know

• The soul is divided into three parts appetitive,
  spirit, and reason. Each part helps us to fulfill
  critical needs, but in Plato's view, only the
  rational part of the soul is fit to rule.
• In order to live a virtuous life, it is necessary
  for the individual to cultivate balance in
  his/her soul. Thus, persons ruled by appetite or
  spirit (emotion) are "out of balance" and their
  actions are apt to provoke personal or social
  disharmony.

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Main Points to Know

• Appetite In cases where appetite rules
  (oligarchic and tyrannical characters fit here)
  individuals are at the mercy of the their
  biological or material whims. Alcohol addiction
  fits this profile. Individuals who are addicted
  to self-destructive patterns of behavior are apt
  to feed their appetites at the expense of other
  life pursuits. People can also be ruled by
  material greed in much the same way. The key here
  is that desire is determinative these are
  cravings of the highest degree.

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Main Points to Know

• Spirit The emotional, passionate side of our
  character is centered on the idea of status on a
  social level. Ambition, desire for honor and
  glory, moral indignation, and cravings for
  admiration, all fit under the umbrella of spirit.
  Love relationships fit into this category as
  well. Our interactions with others provide core
  experiences that influence our emotional
  development.

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Main Points to Know

• Reason The intellectual, thinking part of the
  soul that must weigh options, decide between
  alternatives, and "suppress dangerous urges.
  Plato clearly puts reason in control of the soul
  because it acts as good counsel seeking
  understanding and insight before acting. Rational
  individuals possess a strong contemplative
  faculty. They think before they act and are
  unlikely to take rash action in any given
  situation.

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Know Thyself

• Plato contends that each one of us performs/does
  one thing best. We each have one best skill and
  it is the development of this skill that is of
  paramount importance in creating a harmonious
  existence. If we do not have insight into what
  we do best, the chances of achieving a balanced
  soul are likely reduced. Hence the Socratic
  imperative, "know thyself."
• Just Society First ask yourself is it possible
  to have a just society? What would it look like?
  How would we direct education, the economy,
  leisure, and social resources? What is fair?
• Plato wrestles with the idea of justice in his
  most famous work entitled, The Republic.

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Plato views social justice exactly parallels his
notion of individual justice. There are three
parts of the soul and three corresponding
divisions in the social order. The social order
is constructed as follows
SOCIETY
SOUL
Reason
Philosopher-King
Spirit
Auxiliaries/Guardians
Appetite
Craftsmen/Artisans/Traders
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Overview of Ethical Systems Aristotle (384-322
B.C.)
Though we are naturally suited to moral goodness,
we dont automatically develop such inclinations
Your habits inclinations develop with practice
what you sow is what you reap.
Carefully cultivate moral goodness by rigorous
practice.
Ideal of virtue is doing the right thing because
you want to do the right thing you desire to
act virtuously.
In order to desire to act virtuously you must
carefully and consistently practice doing right
until it becomes habitual natural.
If you act selfishly then you will become a
selfish person. Eventually what feels right to
you may be very wrong.
With practice diligence you can develop the
habits inclinations of a virtuous person.
Thus, choose to be virtuous. Desire judgment
must agree.
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What is Virtue Ethics?

• Virtue Ethics emphasizes the development of
  character as its central theme rather than trying
  to define 'goodness' or 'rightness'. It is a
  eudaimonistic theory as it holds 'happiness' to
  be our highest goal. According to Aristotle, we
  attain happiness by cultivating both intellectual
  and moral virtue. We become virtuous by habit we
  deliberately and consistently choose the mean
  between excess and deficiency until it becomes
  second-nature.

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What is Virtue Ethics?

• We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
  is not an act, but a habit.
• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

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Virtue excellence

• Intellectual virtue can be taught.
• A good person succeeds at rational activity.
• Moral virtue is acquired through excellent
  habits.
• We become good by doing good things.
• We become virtuous by practicing virtuous acts.

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On Becoming Agathos EudaimonFrom Aristotles
Point of ViewCited from Michael Boylan, Basic
Ethics (Upper Saddle River, N.J. Prentice Hall,
2000), 52.

• Step 1 Master the functional requirements within
  a given type of task or behavior. Master a good
  habit.
• Step 2 Possess the habitual mastery of the
  functional requirements to an appropriate degree.
  Possess habitual mastery of that habit.
• Step 3 Steps 1 2 excellence in that task or
  behavior. Achieve excellence in the habit.
• Step 4 Possess habitual excellence in a number
  of key tasks or behavior.
• Step 5 Possess habitual excellence in those
  tasks or behavior that the common opinion judges
  to be the most worthy.
• Step 6 Steps 4 5 leads to agathos.
• Step 7 Possessing Agathos leads to eudaimon.
• Thus, on balance, excellent traits in human
  character generally produce excellent actions.

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Virtue Ethics What kind of person should I be?

• What is a virtue?
• A virtue is a habit of excellence, a beneficial
  tendency, a skilled disposition that enables a
  person to realize the crucial potentialities that
  constitute proper human flourishing (eudaimonia).
• What is a habit? A disposition to think, feel,
  desire, and act in a certain way without having a
  tendency to consciously will to do so.
• What is a character The sum-total of ones
  habits, tendencies, and well-being.
• Four cardinal virtues temperance, courage,
  prudence, and justice. Piety (reverence to the
  gods) is sometimes considered a fifth virtue.

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Closer Look at Virtue

• A virtue such as honesty or generosity is not
  just a tendency to do what is honest or generous,
  nor is it to be helpfully specified as a
  "desirable" or "morally valuable" character
  trait. It is, indeed a character trait that is,
  a disposition which is well entrenched in its
  possessor, something that, as we say "goes all
  the way down", unlike a habit such as being a
  tea-drinker but the disposition in question,
  far from being a single track disposition to do
  honest actions, or even honest actions for
  certain reasons, is multi-track. It is concerned
  with many other actions as well, with emotions
  and emotional reactions, choices, values,
  desires, perceptions, attitudes, interests,
  expectations and sensibilities. To possess a
  virtue is to be a certain sort of person with a
  certain complex mindset. (Hence the extreme
  recklessness of attributing a virtue on the basis
  of a single action) Stanford Encyclopedia

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Three Central Themes

• Three Central Themes
• A. Virtue (arete) A habit of excellence, a
  beneficial tendency, a skilled disposition that
  enables a person to realize the crucial
  potentialities that constitute proper human
  flourishing.
• A habit is a disposition to think, feel, desire,
  and act in a certain way without having a
  tendency to will consciously to do so.
• Character may be defined as the sum-total of
  ones habits.
• C. Eudaimonia (Human Flourishing Successful
  Living)
• C. Phronesis (practical wisdom) How?
• Practice The Golden Mean Be moderate in all
  things to an appropriate degree avoid both
  deficiency and excessiveness cultivate proper
  virtues that are deemed most worthy by your
  community
• Mimic, follow the virtuous person.

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Practical Wisdom (Phronesis)

• A good person consistently does the right thing
  at the right time, in the right way, and for the
  right reason.
• There is no rule for becoming good, or for
  distinguishing good from bad, right from wrong.
• Practical wisdom ability to draw the right
  distinctions and tell right from wrong.

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A Character Trait is a Virtue IFF it is conducive
to eudaimonia The Golden Mean
Virtue Excess
Deficiency Sphere
Courage Rashness Cowardice Danger Temperance S
elf-indulgence Insensibility Sensual
pleasure Liberality Wasteful Stinginess Money M
agnificence Vulgarity Penny pinching Great
wealth Pride Vanity Humility Honor
self-respect Right Ambition Overly
ambitious Lack of ambition Honor Good temper No
emotion Quick-temper Insult Ready
wit Buffoonishness Boorishness Humor Truthfulness
Boastfulness Modesty Self-description Friendlin
ess Flattery Quarrelsome Social
association Shame Bashfulness Pretense Wrongdoi
ng Righteous Spite Envy Fortune of
others Justice Greed ? Scarce goods
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Virtue (courage)
People
Degree
Vice (cowardice)
Duration
Vice (Rashness)
Objects
Occasions
Brutish
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Virtue as a Mean

• We must give in to desire in the right
  circumstances, in the right way, for the right
  reason, etc.
• Practical wisdom allows us to find the mean.
• Theres no rule for doing this.
• You must learn to see what is right

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Virtue as a Mean

• Virtues are means between extremes
• Virtues constrain desires
• But we may constrain too little or too much
• MODERATION IN ALL THINGS IS PARAMOUNT!

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• In the virtuous person, desire and judgment agree
  whereby the choices and actions will be free of
  the conflict and pain that inevitably accompany
  those who are akratic and/or enkratic

The enkratic The enkratic is the morally strong
person who shares the akratic agents desire to
do other than what he knows ought to be done, but
acts in accordance with his better judgment.
The akratic The akratic is the morally weak
person who desires to do other than what he knows
ought to be done and acts on this desire against
his better judgment.
In neither kind of choice are desire and judgment
in harmony. In the virtuous desire and judgment
agree.
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Why does desire and judgment agree for the
virtuous?

• The reason why the choices and actions will be
  free of the conflict and pain that inevitably
  accompanies those of the akratic and enkratic
  agent is because the part of their soul that
  governs choice and action is so disposed that
  desire and judgment coincide. The disposition is
  concerned with choices as would be determined by
  the person of practical wisdom (phronesis) these
  will be actions lying between extreme
  alternatives. They will lie in a man-popularly
  called the golden mean-relative to the talents
  and stores of the agent.

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Why does desire and judgment agree for the
virtuous?

• Choosing in this way is not easily done. It
  involves, for instance, feeling anger or
  extending generosity at the right time, toward
  the right people, in the right way, and for the
  right reasons. Intellectual virtues, such as
  excellence at mathematics, can be acquired by
  teaching, but moral virtues cannot. I may know
  what ought to be done and even perform virtuous
  act without being able to act virtuously.
  Nonetheless, because moral virtue is a
  disposition concerning choice, deliberate
  performance of virtuous acts can, ultimately,
  instill a disposition to choose them in harmony
  and with pleasure, and hence, to act virtuously.

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What does it take to be fully virtuous?

• The fully virtuous do what they should without a
  struggle against contrary desire possess
  practical wisdom (phronesis) which is the
  knowledge or understanding that enables its
  possessor to do just that in any given situation.
  Most contend that phronesis comes out of at
  least three sources
• 1. Comes only with the experience of life. The
  virtuous are mindful of the consequences of
  possible actions. How could they fail to be
  reckless, thoughtless and short-sighted if they
  were not? Moreover, they have developed the
  capacity to recognize some features of a
  situation as more important than others, or
  indeed, in that situation, as the only relevant
  ones. The wise do not see things in the same way
  as the nice adolescents who, with their
  imperfect virtues, still tend to see the
  personally disadvantageous nature of a certain
  action as competing in importance with its
  honesty or benevolence or justice.
• 2. They mimic, follow the virtuous person.
• We might add that it also takes a certain set
  of external goods (e.g., right background, right
  education, right financial resources, right
  community, etc).

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3 Commonly Ascribed Advantages of Virtue
Ethics

• Focuses on the development of habits that promote
  human excellence.
• Focuses on an account in which being virtuous
  means recognizing how rational behavior requires
  being sensitive to the social and personal
  dimensions of life.
• Focuses on how rational actions are not based
  on abstract principles but on moderation.

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Common Criticisms of Virtue Ethics (VE)

• Vast differences on what constitutes a virtue
  (e.g., different people, societies, opinions,
  etc).
• VE lacks clarity in resolving moral
  conflicts.
• VE is self-centered because its primary concern
  is the agents own character.
• Well-being is a master value all other things
  are valuable only to the extent that they can
  contribute to it.
• VE is imprecise It fails to give us any help
  with the practicalities of how we should
  behave.
• VE leaves us hostage to luck for only some will
  attain moral maturity others will not.
  Moreover, life is very fragile. One small
  misstep and it will cost you everything it will
  forever be beyond your reach.

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New Material

• We will now turn to examine Theistic
  Deontological Ethics with Natural Law Theory
• Next Time we will explore Thomas Aquinas four
  cardinal virtues and Introduce Kants
  deontological model as a model that became
  secular.

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Deontological Framework

• An action is right if and only if (iff) it is in
  accordance with a moral rule or principle.
• This is a purely formal specification, forging a
  link between the concepts of right and action and
  moral rule, and gives one no guidance until one
  knows what a moral rule is.

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Deontological Framework

• So, the next thing the theory needs is a premise
  about that A moral rule is one that would have
  been historically
• A. Theistic
• 1. Given to us by God
• 2. Is required by Natural Law (theistic
  connection)
• B. Secular (though can still be connected to
  God)
• 1. Is laid on us by reason.
• 2. Is required by rationality
• 3. Would command universal acceptance
• 4. Would be the object of choice of all
  rational beings.

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Deontological Ethics

• In sum, we should choose actions based on their
  inherent, intrinsic worth evangelical approaches
  to ethics are deontological because it
  presupposes Scripture as revelation.
• Deontological comes from the Greek word
  deon, meaning that which is binding, in
  particular a binding duty. So, you are bound to
  your duty.

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Deontological Ethics

• For example, a deontologist might argue that a
  promise ought to be kept simply because it is
  right to keep a promise, regardless whether the
  doing so will have good or bad consequences.
• In contrast, a utilitarian will argue that we
  should keep our promises only when keeping them
  results in better consequences than the
  alternatives.

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Deontological Ethics

• It holds that acts are right or wrong in and of
  themselves because of the kinds of acts they are
  and not simply because of their ends or
  consequences.
• - The ends do not justify the means.
• - A good end or purpose does not justify a bad
  actions.
• - You are duty-bound binding is not dependent
  on consequences, no matter if it is painful or
  pleasurable.

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Deontological Ethics

• For example
• 1. You are duty-bound to keep your promise to be
  faithful to your spouse, even if a more
  attractive person comes along.
• 2. You are duty-bound to always telling the
  truth, even if it cost you a job.
• Duty is not based on what is pleasant or
  beneficial, but rather upon the obligation itself.

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Natural Law Theory

• I do not feel obliged to believe that the same
  God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and
  intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
• Galileo Galilei.

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Natural Law Theory

• 1. It is moral law presumed to be grounded in
  nature itself. A natural law is a norm for
  ethical behavior that is deemed binding on all
  humans because it coheres with the human essence
  or with the structure of the universe (grounded
  in nature itself), perhaps because it was
  legislated by God.
• 2. Insofar as natural law can be known by reason
  alone, without special revelation, they provide
  guidance for all humans, and when followed they
  enhance the common good, but also render each
  person morally responsible to a divine judge.

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What is Natural Law?

• What do we mean by natural law? In its simplest
  definition, natural law is that unwritten law
  that is more or less the same for everyone
  everywhere. To be more exact, natural law is the
  concept of a body of moral principles that is
  common to all humankind and, as generally
  posited, is recognizable by human reason alone.
  Natural law is therefore distinguished from --
  and provides a standard for -- positive law, the
  formal legal enactments of a particular society.
  Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty

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What is Natural Law?

• Since law must always be some dictate of
  reason, natural law also will be some dictate of
  reason. In fact, it is law discovered by human
  reason. Our normal and natural grasp of the
  natural law is effected by reason, that is, by
  the thinking mind, and in this service reason is
  sometimes called conscience. Jonathan
  Dolhenty, An Overview of Natural Law Theory.

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What is Natural Law?

• Dr. Dolhenty goes on to say
• We, in all our human acts, inevitably see them
  in their relation to the natural law, and we
  mentally pronounce upon their agreement or
  disagreement with the natural law. Such a
  pronouncement may be called a judgment of
  conscience. The norm of morality is the
  natural law as applied by conscience. Lastly, we
  can say that the natural law is the disposition
  of things as known by our human reason and to
  which we must conform ourselves if we are to
  realize our proper end or good as human beings.

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Natural Law Theory

• 3. The idea initially arose among the Jews,
  Greeks, and Romans, esp. promoted by Judaism and
  Stoics. But it came to the foreground in the
  Christian tradition as thinkers drew from both
  philosophy and the Bible to devise a theory of
  morality and politics that could be understood to
  be universally applicable.
• Natural Rights Entitlements with which humans
  are endowed by nature or by virtue of their
  status as being human.

45
Consider

• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) states, one part of
  what is politically just is natural, and the
  other part legal. What is natural has the same
  validity everywhere alike, independent of its
  seeming so or not. What is legal is what
  originally makes no difference whether it is
  done one way or another, but makes a difference
  whenever people have laid down the rule, e.g.,
  that a goat rather than two sheep should be
  sacrificed. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics,
  Book V, 133.

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Consider

• Aristotle also states in On Rhetoric, book 1,
  chap. 13
• there is in nature a common principle of the
  just and unjust that all people in some way
  divine discern, even if they have no
  association or commerce with each other.

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Consider

• Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
• He described Law as the reason highest,
  implanted in Nature, which commands what ought to
  be done and forbids the opposite Laws, in Great
  Legal Philosophers, 44.
• He said that right is based, not upon mens
  opinions, but upon Nature Ibid., 45.

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Cicero goes on to say

• What is right and true is also eternal, and
  does not begin or end with written statutes.
  From this point of view it can readily understood
  by that those who formulated wicked and unjust
  statutes for nations, thereby breaking their
  promises and agreements, put into effect anything
  but laws. It may thus be clear that in the
  very definition of the term law there inheres
  the idea and principle of choosing what is just
  and true. Therefore Law is the distinction
  between things just and unjust, made in agreement
  with that primal and most ancient of all things,
  Nature and in conformity to natures standard
  are framed those human laws which inflict
  punishment upon the wicked but defend and protect
  the good (Ibid., 51).

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In his article, Natural Law in the Teachings of
the Reformers, Journal of Religion 168 (1946),
26, John T. McNeill writes

• There is no real discontinuity between the
  teaching of the Reformers and that of their
  predecessors with respect to natural law. Not
  one of the leaders of the Reformation assails the
  principle. Instead, with the possible exception
  of Zwingli, they all are on occasion express a
  quite ungrudging respect for the moral law
  naturally implanted in the human heart and seek
  to inculcate this attitude in their readers.
  Natural law is not one of the issues on which
  they bring the Scholastics under criticism. With
  safeguards of their primary doctrines but without
  conscious resistance on their part, natural law
  enters into the framework of their thought and is
  an assumption of their political and social
  teaching. For the Reformers, as for the Fathers,
  canonists, and the Scholastics, natural law stood
  affirmed on the pages of Scripture.

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English judge Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780)
writes

• As man depends absolutely upon his Maker for
  everything, it is necessary that he should, in
  all points conform to his Makers will. This
  will of his Maker is called the law of nature.
  This law of nature being coeval with mankind, and
  dictated by God himself, is, of course, superior
  in obligation to any other. It is binding over
  all the globe, in all countries, and at all
  times no human laws are of any validity, if
  contrary to this and such of them as are valid
  derive all of their force and all of their
  authority mediately or immediately from this
  original. William Blackstone, Introduction,
  Commentaries on the Laws of England, sec. 2,
  129-31.

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Natural Law Theory

• Things in nature have a nature.
• Things are bad when they are unnatural.
• Things are good when they fulfill their nature.
• People are good when they fulfill their true
  nature bad humans are those who dont.
• Moral law is the natural law the law that
  requires us to act in accordance with our nature.

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Natural Law Theory

• At its most basic, natural law theory tells us
  that actions are right just because they are
  natural, and wrong just because they are
  unnatural. And people are good to the extent
  that they fulfill their true nature, bad insofar
  as thy flout it. Russ Shafer Landau, The
  Fundamentals of Ethics, 72.

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In summary

• Natural law
• 1. Is not made by human beings
• 2. Is based on the structure of reality
• 3. Is the same for all human beings and at all
  times
• 4. It is an unchanging rule or pattern which is
  there for human beings to discover
• 5. It is the naturally knowable moral law
• 6. It is a means by which people everywhere
  (individuals and as communities) can be
  enriched and rewarded.
• Adapted from John Dolhentys article, An
  Overview of Natural Law Theory.

54
Consider

• We are designed to be moral.
• Paul R. Shockley
• We are definitely at our most peaceful state
  when we adhere to natural law.
• Jeremy R. Poland.

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Justification

• Witness of Deep Conscience
• Witness of Cosmos (purpose design)
• Witness of Human Design
• Witness of Godward longings
• Witness of Consequences.

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Justification

• Consider this statement from John Dolhenty
• It is interesting to note that virtually
  everyone seems to have some knowledge of natural
  law even before such knowledge is codified and
  formalized. Even young children make an appeal to
  "fair play," demand that things be "fair and
  square," and older children and adults often
  apply the "golden rule." When doing so, they are
  spontaneously invoking the natural law. This is
  why many proponents of the natural law theory say
  it is the law which is "written upon the hearts
  of men."

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Justification

• Consider this statement from John Dolhenty
• These are examples of what is called "connatural
  knowledge," that is, a knowledge which
• follows on the "lived experience" of the truth
• is the living contact of the intellect with
  reality itself
• is not always given expression in concepts
• may be obscure to the knower
• is overlaid with elements from the affective or
  feeling side of man's nature.

58
Justification

• John Dolhenty goes on to say
• Now, our reflection on our own conduct gives
  rise to the explicit formulation of the precepts
  of the natural law. We as human beings put our
  "commonsense" notions of natural law under
  "critical examination." In other words, our
  natural impulses toward "fair play," justice, and
  so on are subject to a rigorous investigation and
  rationalization. And our understanding of natural
  law becomes more precise as we consider and
  codify the principles or precepts of natural law.
  The primary precept of natural law will be the
  most basic principle about human action that can
  be formulated.

59
What is the Nature of Man?

• The essential nature of man is unalterable
  because it is a reflection of the unchanging
  divine essence. Rice, 52.

60
What is the Nature of Man?

• Aquinas states
• all those things to which man has a natural
  inclination are naturally apprehended by reason
  as being good, and consequently as objects of
  pursuit, and their contraries as evil, and
  objects of avoidance S.T., I, II, Q. 94, art.
  2 The basic inclinations of man are five
• 1. To seek the good, including his highest good,
  which is eternal happiness with God.
• 2. To preserve himself in existence.
• 3. To preserve the species-that is, to unite
  sexually.
• 4. To live in community with other men.
• 5. To use his intellect and will-that is, to
  know the truth and to make his own decisions.
• These inclinations are put into human nature by
  God to help man achieve his final end of eternal
  happiness. From these inclinations we apply the
  natural law by deduction Good should be done
  this actions is good this actions therefore
  should be done.

61
What is natural law theory?

• There are foundational moral principles which are
  not only right for all, but at some level known
  to all.
• In other words, there exists ethical standards
  which are the same for all, meaning they are
  right for everyone at some level, everyone knows
  them.
• It is natural law because it is built into the
  design of human nature and woven into the fabric
  of the normal human mind it is genuine knowledge
  written on the heart.
• Therefore, there are no moral skeptics supposed
  skeptics are playing make-believe.

62
Clarifying Natural Law Theory

• Natural law is not innate for we are not born
  knowing it. With the capability of understanding
  we come to understand what is meant by murder
  and by wrong.
• Natural law is not merely biological instinct
  though it does take into account of certain
  biological realities.
• Natural law is not mere custom-though customs of
  almost all times and places more or less
  acknowledge it.
• Natural law is not a law of nature in the same
  sense that gravitation is a law of nature.

63
Consider the following statement by Charles Rice

• Natural law will seem mysterious if we forget
  that everything has a law built into its nature.
  The nature of a rock is such that it will sink if
  you throw it into a pond. An automobile will
  function if you feed it gasoline. If you put
  sand in the tank instead, you may be sincere in
  your belief that the car will run, but you will
  end up a pedestrian. The natural law is the
  story of how things work. If you want your body
  to function well, you ought not to treat it as if
  it were a trash compactor. Natural law is easy
  to understand when we are talking about the
  physical nature. But it applies as well to the
  moral sphere.

64
Consider the following statement by Charles Rice

• Morality is governed by a law built into the
  nature of man and knowable by reason. Man can
  know, through the use of his reason, what is in
  accord with his nature and therefore good. Every
  law, however, has to have a lawgiver. Let us say
  up front that the natural law makes no ultimate
  sense without God as its authorThe natural law
  is a set of manufacturers directions written
  into our nature so that we can discover through
  reason how we ought to act. It is nothing
  other can than the light of understanding infused
  in us by God, whereby we understand what must be
  done and what must be avoided citation from
  Aquinas. The Ten Commandments, and other
  prescriptions of the divine law, specify some
  applications of that natural law.
• Charles Rice, 50 Questions on the Natural Law,
  rev. ed., 30-31.

65
Consider the following statement by Charles Rice

• Morality is governed by a law built into the
  nature of man and knowable by reason. Man can
  know, through the use of his reason, what is in
  accord with his nature and therefore good. Every
  law, however, has to have a lawgiver. Let us say
  up front that the natural law makes no ultimate
  sense without God as its authorThe natural law
  is a set of manufacturers directions written
  into our nature so that we can discover through
  reason how we ought to act. It is nothing
  other than the light of understanding infused in
  us by God, whereby we understand what must be
  done and what must be avoided citation from
  Aquinas. The Ten Commandments, and other
  prescriptions of the divine law, specify some
  applications of that natural law.
• Charles Rice, 50 Questions on the Natural Law,
  rev. ed., 30-31.

66
Clarification What Natural Law Does Not Do

• The natural law provides a guide through which
  we can safely and rightly choose to love by God
  by acting in accord with our nature and by
  helping others to do the same. We can know the
  requirements of the natural law through reason
  unaided by explicit revelation. But, because of
  the weakness and disorder caused in our nature by
  original sin, we are likely to make mistakes So
  God has provided revelation to enable to us know
  with certainty how we ought to act.the natural
  law and revelation compliment each other (Ibid.,
  32).

67
Clarification What Natural Law Does Not Do

• There is not a natural morality and a
  supernatural morality but only one salvific
  moralityof which natural law morally is
  existentially a part. Joseph F. Costanzo,
  S.J., The Historical Credibility of Hans Kung,
  359.
• Consider this quote by Pascal

68
But isnt it interesting that we care little so
little about the nature of our soul

• The immortality of the soul is something of
  such vital importance to us, affecting us so
  deeply, that one must have lost all feeling not
  to care about knowing the facts of the matter.
  All our actions and thoughts must follow such
  different paths, according to whether there is
  hope of eternal blessing or not, that the only
  possible way of acting with sense and judgment is
  to decide our course in the light of this point,
  which ought to be our ultimate objective.
  Pascals Pensees, 427/194.

69
Clarification What Natural Law Does Not Do

• The natural law provides an objective standard
  of right and wrong. But it is essential to
  distinguish the objective wrongness of an act
  from the subjective culpability, if any, of the
  person who does it. Jeffrey Dahmer committed
  objective wrong acts when he lured fifteen men to
  his Milwaukee apartment and murdered them. The
  sole question in is trial, however, was whether
  he was sane and therefore culpable. The jury
  decided that he was sane. John Hinkley, however,
  shot President Ronald Reagan, and three others on
  March 30, 1981, and was found not guilty by
  reason of insanity he was committed to a mental
  hospital (Rice, 32).

70
Clarification What Natural Law Does Not Do

• Rice continues
• To be morally culpable for committing a wrong,
  one must know it is wrong and yet choose to do
  it. The abortionist, for example, performs
  actions that objectively violate the natural law
  and the divine law. But his subjective
  culpability may be diminished or perhaps even
  eliminated (or increased) by circumstances. In
  general, the culpability is not ours to judge.
  The presence of absence of subjective
  culpability, however, cannot change the objective
  rightness or wrongness of the act the act
  either is or not in keeping with the
  Manufacturers directions written in our nature
  (Ibid., 33).

71
Clarification What Natural Law Does Not Do

• The distinction between yes and no, true and
  false, good and evil, cannot be given up unless
  men want to give up being human.
• Walter Kasper, Transcending All Understanding
  The Meaning of Christian Faith Today, 41.

72
Aquinas 4 Kinds of Law

• Aquinas defines law in general as an ordinance
  of reason for the common good, made by him who
  has care of the community, and promulgated.
• The four kinds of law are
• The Eternal Law
• The Natural Law
• The Human Law
• The Divine Law.

73
The Eternal Law

• It is Gods plan for the world.
• Flowing from God who is eternal and timeless,
  there is a universal rational orderliness that
  is characteristic of the whole universe.
• The whole community of the universe is governed
  by God, the ruler of the Universe.
• St. Augustine described it as the reason or the
  will of God, who commands us to respect the
  natural order and forbids us to disturb it.

74
The Natural Law

• All things partake somewhat of the eternal law.
• The light of natural reason, whereby we
  discern what is good and what is evil, which is
  the function of the natural law, is nothing else
  than an imprint on us of the Divine Light. It is
  therefore evident that the natural law is nothing
  else than the rational creatures participation
  of the Divine Law. Aquinas, S.T. I, II, Q.
  91, art 2.
• The first, self-evident precept of the natural
  law is that good is to be done and pursued, and
  evil is to be avoided. All other precepts of the
  natural law are based on this self-evident law.

75
The Human Law

• Since the eternal law is the plan of government
  in the Chief Governor, all the plans of
  government, in the inferior governors must be
  derived from the eternal law.

76
The Divine Law

• The Scriptures. Besides the natural and human
  it was necessary for the directing of human
  conduct to have Divine Law The Old and New
  Testament.
• Thus, the divine law compliments the natural
  law.

77
Divine Law Compliments Natural Human law.

• It is necessary for man to accept by faith not
  only things which are above reason, but also
  those which can be known by reason and this for
  three motives. First, in order that man may
  arrive more quickly at the knowledge of Divine
  truth. Second,... In order that the knowledge of
  God may be more general. For many are unable to
  make progress in the study of science, either
  through dullness of mind, or through having a
  number of occupations and temporal needs, or even
  through laziness in learning, all of whom would
  be altogether deprived of the knowledge of God,
  unless Divine things were brought to their
  knowledge under the guise of faith.
• He goes on to say

78
Divine Law Compliments Natural Human law.

• The third reason is for the sake of certitude.
  For human reason is very deficient in things
  concerning God. A sign of this is that
  philosophers in their researches, by natural
  investigation, into human affairs, have fallen
  into many errors, and have disagreed among
  themselves. And consequently, in order that mean
  might have knowledge of God, free of doubt and
  uncertainty, it was necessary for divine matters
  to be delivered to them by way of faith, being
  told to them, as it is were, by God Himself Who
  cannot lie S.T., II, II, Q. 1, art. 4.

79
Consider the following from Aquinas

• As to certain most general precepts that are
  known to all, the natural law, in the abstract,
  can nowise be blotted out from mens hearts.
  However, the natural law is blotted out in the
  case of a particular action, in so far as reason
  is hindered from applying the general principle
  to a particular point of practice, on account of
  concupiscence or some other passion. But as to
  the other, i.e., the secondary precepts, the
  natural law can be blotted out from the human
  heart, either by evil persuasions, just as in
  speculative matters errors occur in respect of
  necessary conclusions or by vicious customs and
  corrupt habits, as among some men, theft, and
  even unnatural vices, as the Apostle states (Rom.
  i), were not esteemed sinful. S.T., I, II, Q.
  94, art. 6.

80
Consider the following from Rice

• A person can so dull his conscience with
  repeated sin that he will no longer acknowledge
  that what he is doing is wrong. As Saint Thomas
  said, Through sin, the reason is obscured,
  especially in practical matters, the will
  hardened to evil, good actions become more
  difficult, and concupiscence yearning of the
  soul for the good more impetuous.

81
Comparison

• Aquinas System of Laws
• The integration of natural and human laws with
  the eternal and divine laws.

• Enlightenment
• Operates entirely on the basis of human law-even
  if the affirm natural law.
• Secular and humanistic, without reliance on God
  and His revelation, divorcing man from Gods
  precepts, leaves man entirely on his own.
• Yet, there is angst, because no man can actually
  free himself from God and from himself as He is
  designed by God. Can Man Really Live Apart from
  God?

82
Natural Law Theory

• The conscience is the pedagogue to the soul
  (teacher).
• Judaism, Origen, and Aquinas say that all ten of
  the Commandments (the Decalogue) are in some
  sense self-evident. Modern Christian scholars
  such as J. Budziszewski defend this view.

83
Conscience

• We know that we are to pursue good and avoid evil
  because natural law is written on the heart
  (prescriptive, not descriptive).
• We have the ability to tell right from wrong.
• We can violate natural law, but when we do, we
  personally suffer (e.g., guilt).

84
Next Time

• More on Natural Law
• Aquinas four cardinal virtues
• Introduction to Kants Categorical Imperative.