NATURAL LAW

Thomas Aquinas The Greek heritage

The Context of the Christian Story Neoplatonic Good
The Context of Aquinas”s Ethics Aristotlelian Being and Becoming

T h e E s s e n c e a n d Va r i e t i e s O f L a w
Essence
Varieties
Natural Law
Uniquely Human
THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS ETHICS

We explore Aquinas’s discussions on…

 In pursuit of happiness, how we direct our actions towards specific ends.
 How emotion – “the passions” –are involved in this process, an therefore require a
proper order if they are properly contribute to a good life.
 How our actions are related to certain dispositions (often referred to us “habits”) in a
dynamic.
 How we develop either good or bad habits with a good disposition leading us toward
making moral choices, bringing us to vice.
THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS ETHICS

 The Christian life is about developing the capacities given to us by God into a disposition of virtue
inclined toward the good.
 There is within us a conscience that directs our moral thinking. There is a sense of right and wrong
in us that we are obliged to obey. He also adds that this sense of right and wrong must be informed,
guided, and ultimately grounded in an objective basis for morality.
 We are called to heed the voice of our conscience and enjoined to develop and maintain life of virtue.
However, these both require content. 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.
THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS ETHICS
NATURAL LAW
Thomas Aquinas The Greek Heritage
The Context of the Christian Story Neoplatonic Good
The Context of Aquinas”s Ethics Aristotlelian Being and Becoming

T h e E s s e n c e a n d Va r i e t i e s O f L a w
Essence
Varieties
Natural Law
Uniquely Human
NEOPLATONIC GOOD

Philosophers
Socrates
He is a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being
the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought.

Plato
Ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE), teacher of Aristotle (384–322 BCE),
and founder of the Academy, best known as the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence.

Plotinus, who is often considered the 'founder' of Neoplatonism, would not have considered himself
a "new" Platonist in any sense, but simply an expositor of the doctrines of Plato.
NEOPLATONIC GOOD

 GOD creates. This does not only means that He brings about beings, but also means
that He cares for, and thus governs the activity of the universe and of every creature.
 This central belief of the Christian faith, while inspired by the divine revelation, has
been shaped and defined by an idea stated in the work of the ancient Greek
philosopher Plato, which had been put forward a thousand years before Aquinas. He
is credited for giving the subsequent history of philosophy in one of its most
compelling and enduring ideas: the notion of a supreme and absolutely transcendent
good.
 The Republic –  Plato's best-known work, and has proven to be one of the world's
most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and
historically.
NEOPLATONIC GOOD

 In his work “The Republic”, Plato trying to envision the ideal society. But that plan is
only a part of a more fundamental concern that animates the text, which is to provide
an objective basis and standard for the striving to be moral.

 Plato was trying to answer questions such as:

“Why should I bother trying to be good?”
“Why cannot ‘good’ be just whatever I say it is?”

 “The good is real and not something that one can pretend to make up or ignore.”
–Socrates
NEOPLATONIC GOOD

In the next century after Plato’s time, some scholars turned to
his texts and tried to decipher the wealth of ideas contained
there. Because they saw their task as basically clarifying and
elaborating on what the great thinker had already written, these
later scholars are often labeled to as Neoplatonists.
NEOPLATONIC GOOD

 Neoplatonic philosophy is a strict form of principle-monism that strives to

understand everything on the basis of a single cause that they considered divine, and
indiscriminately referred to as “the First”, “the One”, or “the Good”
 Neoplatonism is a thought form rooted in the philosophy of Plato, but extending
beyond or transforming it in many respects. ... For example, Neoplatonism sought to
overcome the Platonic cleavage between thought and reality, or Ideal and Form.
 Neoplatonist beliefs are centered on the idea of a single supreme source of goodness
and being in the universe from which all other things descend. Every iteration of an
idea or form becomes less whole and less perfect. Neoplatonists also accept that evil
is simply the absence of goodness and perfection.
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