Recall

Give me your Best answer for the individual

assessment last meeting
• Types of Egoism
• Sources of Authority
• Steps in Decision Making
• Ulitarianism
• Bentham and Mills theory

• Aquinas Virtue Ethics

• The Greek Heritage (Plato and Aristotle)
• Varieties of law
 OBJECTIVE
1. Recognize how Thomas Aquinas made use of ancient Greek
concepts to provide a rational grounding to an ethical theory based
on the Christian based on the Christian faith.

2. Identify the natural law in distinction from, but also in relation to,
the other types of law mentioned by Aquinas: eternal, human law,
and divine law

3. Apply the percepts of the natural law to contemporary concerns.

Thomas Aquinas
1225-1274
 Thomas Aquinas
1225-1274

• Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church

• He was a Dominican friar who was the prominent figure of the scholastic
period of the Middle Ages
• He contributed to the doctrine of the faith more than any other figure of
his time
• Wrote Summa Theologiae, a voluminous work that comprehensively
discusses many points in Christina theology
 Ethics according to Aquinas
Passions
-Emotions that are involved in the process that requires proper
order to contribute properly to a good life.

Habits
-Dispositions make us act in certain ways.
Good habits= moral choices
Bad habits= immoral choices

God gave us the capacity into disposition of virtue inclined toward

the good.
We have a sense of right and wrong that should
still be guided by the objective basis of morality
he called CONSCIENCE.

CONSCIENCE therefore serves as guide to

maintain VIRTUE ETHICS.
The Greek Influence

NATURAL LAW
The Greek Influence

Plato
 The Greek Influence

Plato
• Christian belief was inspired by Plato and was
put forward a thousand of years before Aquinas.

• Plato’s work which main concept is,

“Why should I bother trying to be good?”
 The Greek Influence
Plato

Neoplatonic Good

-God creates, not only that He cares and governs

the activity of the universe and of every creature.
 The Idea of Good Excerpt from The Republic written by
Plato

Unity is the essense of the Neoplatonic good…

Unity means many people agrees

*Similar to the theory of Bentham’s Quantitave model, it

promotes more happiness than more pain.
The Greek Influence

Aristotle
 Aristotelian being and becoming 4 causes

1. Material cause

2. Formal cause

3. Efficient cause

4. Final cause
 Aristotelian being and becoming
(Any being is said to have 4 courses as follows)

1. Material cause

-is determined by the matter that composes the

changing things.

Eg. For a chair, that matter might be wood.

 Aristotelian being and becoming
(Any being is said to have 4 courses as follows)

2. Formal Cause

-is due to the arrangement, shape, or appearance of

the thing changing.

From a plain piece of wood to a chair.

 Aristotelian being and becoming
(Any being is said to have 4 courses as follows)
3. Efficient Cause

-an efficient cause consists of things apart from the

thing being changed, which interact so as to be an
agency of the change.

Eg. A carpenter acting on wood to make a table.

 Aristotelian being and becoming
(Any being is said to have 4 courses as follows)

4. Final Cause

-Final causes that for the sake of which a thing is

changing.

Eg.
A chair is meant to be sat on
 Potency and Act
A chair has to be fully completed because…

“Potencies can be actualized if the chair is

completed and serve it’s purpose”
 Potency and Act
A puppy needs to be full-grown

Potencies can be actualized if the puppy is full

grown.
 Potency and Act
An infant needs to be full-grown

Potencies can be actualized if the baby is full

grown.
How are you going to actualize your potencies?

What is your purpose?

Why did God created you?
Freedom is given to us and our actions are
directed to toward attaining goods that we desire.

• We study to learn
• Mother bakes for cookies

But according to Aquinas, we should act not only

act for attaining our goods, but common goods.
How are you going to actualize your potencies? Is
that for a common good?
To Aquinas, he who is himself the fullness of being and of
goodness, as Aquinas puts it, God is that which essentially is and
essentially good.
• We are made after his image
• We ourselves are creator, therefore we should live in accordance
to the creator.
• Every creation should be returned to him.
• We are made imperfect so that we can fulfil our nature the best
way we can and actualize the potencies that are present in our
nature
God created us, and so when we make our
creations it should be geared towards him and his
wills.
Why do you think laws are made?
 Why do you think laws are made?

Answer: Because law is concerned with the

common good
 Law

Eg. At the road you can’t just drive anywhere you

want, there are restricted areas for parking etc.,
because it might cause traffic, such limit is called
law
 Law

Promulgation- Rules should be communicated to

people involved in order to enforce hem and to
better ensure compliance.
Did God promulgated his law to mankind?
Did God promulgated his law to mankind?
How?
 Varieties of Law
1. Eternal law- It is God’s wills for creation.

Eg. God’s eternal love for mankind

* Praising other Gods and committing actions that

is not geared towards God’s will violates Eternal
law
 Varieties- Virtue Ethics
2. Divine law- God’s law

Eg. The 10 commandments

*Stealing violates the divine law

 Varieties- Virtue Ethics
3. Natural law- it is in our nature to preserve its own being

Eg. Makahiya folds on its own, to protect itself from being

touched.

*Giving birth and giving life to a baby is natural,

murder therefore is a violation of the natural law
 Varieties- Virtue Ethics
4. Human law- Human beings enforce law on their
own communities, ideally for a common good.

Eg. The Philippine Constitution

*Using and selling drugs violates the human law

 Assessment
1. Draw a living thing or inanimate object and
identify it’s cause of being and becoming

Material Cause
Formal Cause
Efficient Cause
Final Cause
 Assessment
2. Give at least one example of the varieties of law

Eternal law
Divine law
Natural law
Human law
References:
Ethics

Foundations of Moral Valuation

Bulaong Jr. Calano, Langliva, Mariano, Principe
 Assessment
1 Are there other ways the word natural is used to justify a particular way of
behaving
2. Can you think human laws that are proper extensions of natural law?
Can you think of other human laws that violate the natural law?
Epxlain how this is so.
3. Are there other forms of harm-killing, that may be take n a violation of the natural
inclination to preserve one’s being. Justify
4. Are the current scientific developments, in biology challenges the understanding
of nature presented by Aquinas
5. Is it possible to maintain a natural law theory without believing in the divine
source? Why or why not?