St. Thomas Aquinas: the Human Law and Natural Law Debate

According to Dr. Karen Wynn, humans are in fact born with an ingrained sense of morality. In the classic experiment where a baby sees two scenarios, one with a helpful puppet and one with a mean-spirited one, over 80% choose the kind character when presented with both of them. From primates that roam jungles to dolphins that traverse oceans, even animals have this instinct in their brains. We are all created with this inner sense, so the question is, how does it change in certain people? If all creatures start off with a clean slate, a sympathetic spirit, there must be something that causes them to

Mahatma Gandhi,a famous boxer, once said, “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” Just because one person does something wrong or lacks morals, does not means the whole human race is bad. Sometimes as humans, people make wrong choices, which does not make them horrible, just human. The same way humans can make choices, they also have the ability to experience loss, emotions, relationships, survival, and morality. These traits are what separate humans from other living organisms. These are traits that all humans share, hence the name “shared humanity”. This can be seen in everyday life and in literature and films, such as, The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst,

The analogy between God and creation is a metaphysical debate that Theologians and Philosophers are stilling struggling with today. It is only when Philosophy is thought of as a tool for Theology to discover meaning in the concepts used to describe the metaphysical that individuals are able to better understand divinity in either a equivocal or univocal sense. When language is used to describe the similarities and dissimilarities between the creator and creature in a metaphysical sense, disputes on whether or not connections can be made through conceptualizing still rage on today. “Thus, at the critical heart of the entire question, there stand, on the one side, the Joachimism of the West and East and, on the other, the Fourth Lateran Council and Thomas Aquinas: in the former case, gnostic or mystic, exemplary or rhythmic identity as the fundamental principle of theopanism or pantheism, in the latter, analogy as the utterly fundamental principle obtaining between God and creature” (Przywara, p.362). One of the main lessons

While we live in a world that idolizes popstars and political figures, we often forget about the men that made our self expression possible. Humanism is defined as “a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason (Humanism).” St. Francis and St. Aquinas were both key figures in the beginning of this movement. Instead of reflecting on the holy they decided to look inward and also outward at the world that surrounded them. St. Aquinas, St. Francis, and the impacts they had on humanism were monumental and are worthy of discussion.

In the article on ‘’The Moral Instinct’’, Steven Pinker begins by posing a question, who do you find the most admirable: Bill gates, Mother Teresa or Norman Borlaug? These are all great people but who we choose is based upon our perception of what we prefer from their accomplishments. Pinker begins by saying, we as human strive towards moral goodness, and this gives us a sense of being worthy. He then argues that moralization is used as a psychological state that we use to deem our actions as moral or immoral. Moreover, some actions are prohibited universally, such as killing or rapping, and people who commit these acts are deserved to be punished which is agreed upon the majority.

Dwelling in the deepest recesses of the mind, hidden in the various cortexes of the brain, the fundamental nature of every human lurks seeping into the actions of the individual. Can morality ever dictate a society? The individual contradicts the group and morals become subjective. Morals form ethics, ethics form laws, but all must have nearly universal agreement in order to be validated. Due to this unavoidable variation of an individual’s morals the necessary consensus of morals prevents the establishment of a true moral based society.

Several hundred years ago, two great philosophers Thomas Aquinas’s and Rene Descartes used the method of ontological argument for the existence of God and used intuition and reason alone to get to each other’s theory. Rene Descartes wrote out several mediations, but the one we’re going to touch base on is meditation III that he wrote in the 1600’s; While Thomas Aquinas’s wrote his five proofs of God in 1270 that specifies God’s existence in each proof; the one that gives the best argument is the existence of God in his III proof. While both philosophers provide great information about their reason about God, Thomas Aquinas’s and Rene Descartes both attempt to prove the existence of God, but

Saint Thomas Aquinas had a complete theory of man ,whereas modern anthropologists ,or Agnostics, couldn't get a complete theory of man. Modern anthropologists also could not get a complete theory or nature while Thomas wanted to study the nature of man.Aquinas even wrote a theological summary called the Summa Theologica that described the purpose of nature. Aquinas looks at facts just like they're facts while Agnostics question them. All questions the the Agnostics didn't know they labeled as Unknowable, compared to Aquinas who looked at facts. Agnostics describe a change as nothing while Thomas describes that the ordinary thing is something that hasn't lived up to its full potential yet. Once they have lived up to their potential they cannot

Thomas Aquinas is one of the most notable philosophers whose works have been used as reference materials by people across different generations. His theological perspectives stressed the influences created by Aristotle. According to Aquinas, religion and faith remain intertwined in the logic. Thomas Aquinas believed that faith and reason are the same. Therefore, his concept of the Bible and the Church differ from other scholars who stressed the significance of religion. The voice of reason has been echoed from one generation of philosophers to the other. Several religious figures considered the concepts shared by Aquinas from an extremist point of view. They believed that Aquinas like Aristotle diverted people from religious aspects by focusing on faith solely. Aquinas’ work, the “Summa Theologica” is the basis of the discussion.

morality permits each of us a sphere in which to pursue our own plans and goals.

St. Thomas Aquinas interpreted Aristotle’s philosophies to be read in a Christian lens. His view demonstrates that moral obligations are determinants of a natural law, one that is acquired from each individual’s “God-given nature and is knowable by [all]” (McBrayer & Markie 2014, p. 241). Aquinas emphasized morality being crucial for everyone, and that God’s plans for his creations include being good. Although, he knew that not everyone was informed of God’s moral rules; so, he theorized that God created the world in accordance to natural laws in which his creations have an innate sense of knowing what is good for themselves. From our intuitive desires, some inclinations are natural, while others are unnatural.

“However, for Aquinas, natural is not just a matter of preference but a matter of morality” (Wilkens 195). Wilkens, points out that Aquinas, acknowledges that some people see their point of view as natural, however, it is not truly natural, it is their view of natural or their perspective. Perspective and natural are very two different things. The same can be said for morality, there are many different perspectives of morality, however perspectives do not define morality. Circumstances, of a specific situation can conclude what is morally correct in that matter, or what someone ought and ought not to do. For, example contraception is not natural birth control, however, it is very natural for a husband and wife to use birth control, if they

St. Thomas Aquinas was an influential Scholastic theologian that taught many interesting and powerful Christian thoughts. In Aquinas’ writings, he mentions many theoretical economic problems of his time and how to address these issues. Aquinas has many economic ideas concerning property rights, division of labor, trade, what is a just price, and usury. With his incredible influence and multitude of economic ideas, St. Thomas Aquinas is a powerful thinker to study in the history of economic thought.

Saint Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine, talks about worldly possessions can hold us back from giving all of ourselves to God and how we should learn about God through the sacred scriptures. In Thomas Aquinas’ Sacred Doctrine, he goes into depth what the sacred doctrine is and how God plays such an important role as the author. Even though these two authors talk about different things, they are similar in one way. This one way being that it is only reasonable to learn about God through the sacred text that he wrote.

However, if morality is so important, are the motives behind acting morally really all that significant? According to psychological egoism “every human action is motivated by self interest” (Rachels 64). As humans we are incapable of acting unselfishly. So what makes anyone think we could behave morally for altruistic reasons?