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Aristotle God

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Prima Pars (1st Part) Existence and Nature of God ... deny that the principles of the right enjoin us to maximize the good -- while he ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Aristotle God


1
Aquinas and Natural Law Ethics
  • Aristotle God

2
Thomas Aquinas
  • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
  • Aquinas was dubbed the dumb ox by his fellow
    students, for being large and quiet. He was
    apparently quiet because he was busy thinking he
    became the Catholic churchs top theologian, a
    title he still holds today, without dispute.

3
Major Work
  • Aquinass major work, the Summa Theologica, is
    divided into 4 parts.
  • Prima Pars (1st Part) Existence and Nature of God
  • Prima Secundae (1st Part of the 2nd Part)
    Happiness, Psychology, Virtues, Law (Human,
    Natural, Divine)
  • Secunda Secundae (2nd Part of the 2nd Part) The
    virtues in detail
  • Tertia Pars (3rd Part) Christian Doctrine

4
Aquinas and Aristotle
  • During the Middle Ages, Aristotles works were
    lost to Western Europe, beginning in the first
    few centuries AD, up until the middle of the 13th
    century.
  • Aquinas merged Aristotle with Christianity after
    the recovery of his philosophy via Muslim
    scholars in the 13th century.
  • The purposiveness or end-directedness of
    nature in Aristotle is identified by Aquinas with
    Gods purposes.

5
Two Part Explanation of the Term Natural Law
  • Natural Law viewed from Gods perspective is how
    humans participate in the Eternal Law, which is
    Gods eternal plan A law is a rule of action
    put in place by someone who has care of the
    community Mark Murphy http//plato.stanford.edu/
    entries/natural-law-ethics/
  • So, Natural Law is law in that the rules are
    put in place by someone by a person

6
Two Part Explanation of the Term Natural Law
  • Viewed from the human perspective, the principles
    of natural law are knowable by human nature and
    are structured to aid in furthering individual
    and communal goods.
  • Human nature determines what is natural in
    Natural Law.
  • This two part description of Natural Law tells
    us quite a bit about how to understand moral
    language and what entities are involved for
    Aquinas in the nature of ethics. That is, we have
    a bit of his Metaethics here.
  • What is Aquinass Normative ethical view though?

7
Normative Theory
  • Aquinass first principle of morality is
  • Good should be done, and evil avoided
  • We are by nature inclined toward the Good,
    according to Aquinas, but we cannot pursue the
    good directly because it is abstractwe must
    pursue concrete goods which we know immediately,
    by inclination. Those goods are
  • Preservation of life
  • Procreation
  • Knowledge
  • Society
  • Reasonable Conduct

8
Normative Theory
  • Aquinas, then, has a value-based ethical theory.
    The rightness or wrongness of particular actions
    is determined by how those actions further or
    frustrate the goods.
  • Certain ways of acting are intrinsically flawed
    or unreasonable responses to these human goods.
  • Like Aristotle, Aquinas seems sure there can be
    no formula provided to determine what action is
    right or wrong in all particular cases.
  • Prudence (practical wisdom) is required for the
    most part, if not always, to determine if a given
    act is intrinsically flawed or not.

9
Intrinsically Flawed Action
  • Murphy provides a nice account of how acts can be
    intrinsically flawed or unreasonable
  • Aquinas does not obviously identify some master
    principle that one can use to determine whether
    an act is intrinsically flawed though he does
    indicate where to look -- we are to look at the
    features that individuate acts, such as their
    objects , their ends , their circumstances ,
    and so forth. An act might be flawed through a
    mismatch of object and end -- that is, between
    the immediate aim of the action and its more
    distant point. If one were, for example, to
    regulate one's pursuit of a greater good in light
    of a lesser good -- if, for example, one were to
    seek friendship with God for the sake of mere
    bodily survival rather than vice versa -- that
    would count as an unreasonable act. An act might
    be flawed through the circumstances while one is
    bound to profess one's belief in God, there are
    certain circumstances in which it is
    inappropriate to do so. An act might be flawed
    merely through its intention to direct oneself
    against a good -- as in murder , and lying ,
    and blasphemy -- is always to act in an
    unfitting way. Mark Murphy http//plato.stanford
    .edu/entries/natural-law-ethics/

10
Fit with Utilitarians and Kantians
  • Is an action ever intrinsically flawed because it
    fails to maximize goodness? Murphy, again
  • His natural law view understands principles of
    right to be grounded in principles of good on
    this Aquinas sides with utilitarians, and
    consequentialists generally, against Kantians. 
    But Aquinas would deny that the principles of the
    right enjoin us to maximize the good -- while he
    allows that considerations of the greater good
    have a role in practical reasoning, action can be
    irremediably flawed merely through (e.g.) badness
    of intention, flawed such that no good
    consequences that flow from the action would be
    sufficient to justify it -- and in this Aquinas
    sides with the Kantians against the utilitarians
    and consequentialists of other stripes. Mark
    Murphy http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-l
    aw-ethics/

11
Fit with Aristotle
  • Must prudence determine the right action in every
    situation, or are there at least some universal
    general rules that are always valid or correct?
  • And while Aquinas is in some ways Aristotelian,
    and recognizes that virtue will always be
    required in order to hit the mark in a situation
    of choice, he rejects the view commonly ascribed
    to Aristotle (for doubts that it is Aristotle's
    view see Irwin 2000) that there are no
    universally true general principles of right.
    Mark Murphy http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/nat
    ural-law-ethics/

12
Photo Credits
  • Title Slide Library, St. Pauls College,
    Washington, D.C. http//www.flickr.com/photos/lric
    ecsp/2365699386

13
3 Slides on the Metaphysics of Goodness
14
Plato On the Nature of The Good
Analogy of the Sun
The Sun
The Good
is that makes to the through the power of by
providing
an intelligible object objects intelligible soul u
nderstanding truth
a visible object objects visible eye sight light
The tree above is the visible object, the Forms
(Universals) are the intelligible objects that
the Good shines on. Both the Sun and the Good
create their objects.
http//www.boisestate.edu/people/troark/didactics/
ancient/materials/Line_Sun.pdf
15
Aristotle On the Nature of The Good
The Good
as a transcendental property
Substance Quality Place Position
Action
Quantity Relation Time Possession
Passion
Socrates
is white
is in Athens
is seated
is speaking
is a friend to Plato
is one
it is noon
has a toga
is being spoken to
Is it odd that good can be predicated in any of
the 10 categories?
16
Aquinas On the Nature of The Good
God Being The Good Angels Humans Animals Plant
s Rocks Mud Nothingness
The Great Chain of Being
Actuality
Potentiality
Aquinas gets the chain from Plotinus (his
student, Porphyry), Augustine, Boethius,
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and others, and
adds to it
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