Thomas Aquinas developed the theory of natural law, which argues that God instilled humans and other creatures with intrinsic desires for certain "basic goods" that are necessary for survival and reproduction. According to Aquinas, the seven basic goods are: life, reproduction, educating offspring, seeking God, living in society, avoiding offense to others, and avoiding ignorance. Aquinas believed that natural law can be derived from rational consideration of these basic goods, and that it allows humans to understand morality even without instruction in religion. Natural law forms the basis of what is right and wrong according to Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas developed the theory of natural law, which argues that God instilled humans and other creatures with intrinsic desires for certain "basic goods" that are necessary for survival and reproduction. According to Aquinas, the seven basic goods are: life, reproduction, educating offspring, seeking God, living in society, avoiding offense to others, and avoiding ignorance. Aquinas believed that natural law can be derived from rational consideration of these basic goods, and that it allows humans to understand morality even without instruction in religion. Natural law forms the basis of what is right and wrong according to Aquinas.
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Philosophy-Natural Law Theory of St. Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas developed the theory of natural law, which argues that God instilled humans and other creatures with intrinsic desires for certain "basic goods" that are necessary for survival and reproduction. According to Aquinas, the seven basic goods are: life, reproduction, educating offspring, seeking God, living in society, avoiding offense to others, and avoiding ignorance. Aquinas believed that natural law can be derived from rational consideration of these basic goods, and that it allows humans to understand morality even without instruction in religion. Natural law forms the basis of what is right and wrong according to Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas developed the theory of natural law, which argues that God instilled humans and other creatures with intrinsic desires for certain "basic goods" that are necessary for survival and reproduction. According to Aquinas, the seven basic goods are: life, reproduction, educating offspring, seeking God, living in society, avoiding offense to others, and avoiding ignorance. Aquinas believed that natural law can be derived from rational consideration of these basic goods, and that it allows humans to understand morality even without instruction in religion. Natural law forms the basis of what is right and wrong according to Aquinas.
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NATURAL LAW THEORY naturally want, Aquinas said, is self-preservation – the
drive to sustain life. Aquinas thought God built all
creatures with a survival instinct. And this appears to Thomas Aquinas was no dummy. Remember be pretty much true. I mean, we naturally avoid him? The Italian fella? Christian Monk? Philosophical dangerous situations like swimming with hungry superstar of the 13th century? Aquinas thought sharks, and when we find ourselves in danger, we morality was important for everyone, and that being a don’t have to stop and ponder the options before good person was a vital part of God’s plan for each of getting ourselves to safety. After preserving our own us. But he also knew that not everyone had been lives, our next most pressing basic good is to make exposed to the Bible, or had even heard of God. So, more life – in other words, to reproduce. Some beings what bothered him was: How could people follow are able to do this on their own, but since we need to God’s moral rules – also known as the divine coordinate matters with a partner, God kindly instilled commands – if they didn’t even know about the guy us with a sex drive, and made the process feel good, who made the commandments? Aquinas just couldn’t to make sure that we do it. Thanks God! believe that God would have expectations for us, if he didn’t also gives us – all of us – a way to meet them. But once we manage to achieve our second So, Aquinas’ theorized that God made us pre-loaded basic good – reproduction – we need to educate those with the tools we need to know what’s Good. This kids we just made. For humans, that’s going to mean idea became known as the natural law theory. And stuff like school and lessons in morality. But even non- there are a lot of versions of this theory still human animals need to teach their babies how to circulating around today. But Aquinas’ original take on hunt and avoid predators. Otherwise, the offspring natural law is by far the most influential, and the they worked so hard to create aren’t going to survive longest standing. How influential? Well, if you’re long enough to reproduce themselves, which, of Catholic or a member of any of the major Protestant course, is the goal of everything. And while these first denominations, or were raised in any of those goods semm to apply to a pretty wide swath of traditions, then you’r probably already familiar with creation, some of the basic goods are just for humans, how Aquinas saw the moral universe and your place in because of the particular kind of being we are. For it. Basically, God is awesome, and he made you. So, instance, Aquinas thought we are built with an you are awesome. It’s just important that you don’t instinctual desire to know God. He believed we seek forget to be awesome. him in our lives, whether we’ve been exposed to the idea of God or not. Interestingly, the existentialist We all want stuff. Aquinas got that and he Jean-Paul Sartre agreed with Aquinas on this. He said said that it was OK. In fact, the theory of natural law is we’re all born with a god-shaped hole inside of us. based on the idea that God wants us to want things – The tragedy, for Sartre, is that he was an atheist, so he specifically, good things. Aquinas argued that God believed this was an emptiness that could never be created the world accoridng to natural laws – filled. predictable, goal-driven systems whereby life is Next, taking a page out of Aristotle’s book, sustained, and everything functions smoothly. And as Aquinas also called that humans are naturally social part of this natural order, God made certain things animal, so it’s part of our basic good to lin in that were good for his various creatures. Sunlight and community with others. While short periods of water are good for plants. Meat is good for cats, and solitude can be good, he believed that we’re basically plants are good for bunnies. And – because God is pack animals, and our desire for love and acceptance, awesome – he instilled all of his creatures with an and our susceptibility to peer pressure, are all intuitive desire for the things that he designed to be evidence of this. Now, since we naturally want to be best for them. The things that we’re designed to seek part of a pack, it’s a good idea not to alienate our are known as the basic goods, and there are seven of pack-mates. So, basically, Aquinas said we recognize them (Life, Reproduction, Educate one’s offspring, the basic good of not pissing everybody off. I mean, seek God, live in society, avoied offense, and shun he didn’t actually say it exactly that way. But if he did, ignorance). The first thing that all living things just I’m sure it sounded a lot better in Latin. The point is, Aquinas said we feel shame and guilt when we do things that cause our group to turn against us, and that was another basic good. And finally, Aquinas said we’re built to shun ignorance. We’re natural knowers. We’re inquisitive, and we want to be right. This is another trait that we share with non-human animals, becuase knowledge promotes survival, and ignorance can mean starving to death or ending up as someone else’s dinner. So these are the basic goods, and from them, we can derive the natural laws. We don’t need the Bible, or religion class, or church in order to understand the natural law, Aquinas said. Instead, our instinct shows us the basic goods, and reason allows us to derive the natural law from them. Right acts, therefore, are simply those that are in accordance with the natural law. So how does this whole system work? Well, I recognize the basic good of life, because I value my own life. And that’s clear to me, because I have a survival instinct that keeps me from doing dangerous, stupid stuff. Then, reason leads me to see others also have valuable lives. And from there I see that killing is a violation of natural law. So, for each negative law, or prohibition, there’s usually a corresponding positive one – a positive injunction.