Introduction to Philosophy

Achieve Test Prep: Philosophy

fundamental nature of what it means to be human. There is a natural law that is based on humanity’s essential nature and that is universal ad binding to all people. We can discover these natural moral truths through reason and reflection, and they have been articulated in the greatest moral and legal philosophies of Western culture. St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the most significant Christian thinkers of the medieval period. He believed in the dictates of reason, meaning we can use our critical thinking abilities to reveal the essential moral nature of people, the ideal image of fulfilled human potential and then use this image to inform our moral choices and guide our personal development. His systematic development of natural law theory has been influential in the development of ethical theory in the Catholic Church his greatest work is The Summa Theologica , in which he attempts to integrate key elements of Aristotle’s thinking with Christian theology. His metaphysic includes a hierarchy of laws:

• Eternal laws: The uncreated reason of God that guides the universe.

• Divine law: The law that directs humans to a vision of God and eternal blessedness.

• Natural law: The moral laws derived from Divine law that humans can discover through reason.

• Human law: The legislation and custom that govern cultures.

Aquinas views the purpose of laws is to make men good by habituating them to good works, correlating with Aristotle’s theory that people become virtuous by acting virtuously and that is why education and proper laws are necessary to help citizens develop virtuous (good) habits. Martin Luther King, Jr. was imprisoned in a Birmingham jail in a nonviolent demonstration against segregation and wrote a letter from jail which reflected his response to a public statement of concern and cautions issues by eight white religious leaders of the South. King believed there was a natural law containing universal moral principles by which a society could be judged and believed that there were occasions when our commitment to natural law demands civil disobedience against unjust laws. The natural law ethics holds that there is an eternal, true, human nature that provides a written moral code for all human beliefs as to what actions are right and what are wrong. There is a long tradition of religions working to connect innate natural faculty for determining right and wrong with a divine and unchanging moral principle.

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