Lesson 3

Natural Law and Divine Command Theory

What is This Lesson About?

Lesson 3 is on Natural Law and Divine Theory. Specifically, it will discuss on natural law
specifically on St. Thomas Aquinas’ Natural Law and the Common Good.

.What Will You Learn

In this lesson, you are expected to have:

Acquired clear understanding about St. Thomas Aquinas’ Natural Law and the Common
Good.

Activities or Learning Tasks

Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Let Us TRY This

Brain and Heart Drill No.1

Create any symbolic representation that would illustrate REASON

AND FAITH IN ONE’S DIVINE BEING. Explain your illustration.

“My Symbolic Representation of RATIONALITY AND FAITH IN MY GOD”

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Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
PLEASE READ, UNDERTSAND AND TRY TO REFLECT ON THE LESSON EXCERPT
THAT I HAVE SHARED….GODBLESS AND GOODLUCK!

Lesson Excerpt

St. Thomas Aquinas, Natural Law, and the Common

Good
St. Thomas Aquinas, a medieval Roman Catholic scholar, reconciled the political philosophy
of Aristotle with Christian faith. In doing so, he contended that a just ruler or government must
work for the "common good" of all.
Before the time of Jesus, the Greeks developed concepts about how the world worked and
human beings behaved. Aristotle, who died in 322 B.C., was an Athenian philosopher who
wrote about science, ethics, politics, and almost every other realm of knowledge.
Throughout his writings, Aristotle did not teach that the Greek gods or religion controlled the
world and its people. Instead, his observations led him to conclude that nature was purposeful
and driven by natural laws that human reason could discover. These natural laws provided a
way to explain the world and the place of humans within it.
In one of Aristotle’s works called The Politics, he reasoned, "man is by nature a political
animal." By this, he meant that people were naturally destined to live in groups, which required
some sort of ruler or government. According to Aristotle, only by living in a community "to
secure the good life" could human beings achieve such virtues as courage, honesty, and
justice. In his time, this human community was a city-state like Athens.
Applying his scientific method of observation and analysis of evidence, Aristotle studied the
governments of 158 city-states in the Greek world. He classified rule by a king (monarchy)
and the superior few (aristocracy) as "good" governments. He judged rule by the few rich
(oligarchy) and the many poor (democracy) as "bad" governments.
Aristotle concluded that the best government was one that "mixed" the features of oligarchy
and democracy. For example, all the citizens would choose some government officials by
lottery. But only some citizens with a certain amount of property or wealth could qualify for
other offices. Aristotle thought this form of government provided the best chance for political
stability.

Augustine and Christian Faith

Hundreds of years later, Christianity emerged as the dominant religion in the Roman Empire.
The fathers of the early Christian Church introduced a way of explaining the world far different
from that of Aristotle. Perhaps the most important of these early church fathers was St.
Augustine.

Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Augustine was born in A.D. 354 in North Africa, then a province of Rome. As a youth, he
studied the concepts of natural law and human reason from the writings of classic Greek and
Roman thinkers like Aristotle and Cicero. Augustine converted to Christianity when he was
33.
He became a Christian priest and bishop of the North African city of Hippo. For a while, he
believed reason and faith were compatible. By the year 400, however, he had changed his
mind. "Do not therefore try to understand in order that you may believe," he wrote, "but believe
in order that you may understand."
Augustine taught that when Adam and Eve put their own desires above God’s will, they
committed a sin that became the source of evil among human beings. Christians often call
this "original sin." Augustine believed that all human beings were born with original sin and
were thus doomed to damnation. But like other Christians, he also believed that God was
merciful and sent Jesus to save believers from sin and eternal suffering.
Even so, Augustine viewed humans as essentially sinful. Only some of them would escape
from the fires of hell. These individuals, known only to God, would achieve heavenly bliss in
what Augustine called the "City of God." Membership in the Christian (Roman Catholic)
church was essential, he wrote, but even that did not guarantee salvation.
Because of Adam and Eve’s sinfulness, government was needed to control and punish sinful
humans. Augustine said that government forms were not important since they were all
temporary.
Augustine argued that people should obey their rulers unless they violated God’s word. In
that case, believers could refuse to obey, but must expect punishment. In general, though,
he advised that it was better to endure a wicked state during one’s brief existence on Earth,
having faith that eternal life awaited in the City of God.
Augustine died in 430 as barbarians assaulted Hippo, heralding the end of the Roman
Empire. Later, the Roman Catholic Church made him a saint. St. Augustine’s writings helped
develop Catholic Church beliefs.

Thomas Aquinas Combined Reason and Faith

Nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle died, only a few of his works on logic survived in Western
Europe. But Jewish and Muslim scholars had preserved much of his writing. Starting in the
1100s, scholars in the West began to translate Aristotle’s works from Hebrew and Arabic into
Latin, making them available in the new universities that were forming. Along with these
translations came extensive commentaries on Aristotle such as those by the Spanish Muslim
scholar Averroes.
The rediscovery of Aristotle’s works with their sophisticated explanation of the world based
on natural law and reason seemed to challenge the teachings of the Christian faith. At first,
the Roman Catholic Church tried to ban his works.
But some church scholars such as Albert the Great at the University of Paris thought it was
possible to combine human reason and Christian faith. Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Roman
Catholic theologian (religious scholar), devoted his life to this task.

Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Aquinas was born in 1225, the son of a noble family in the kingdom of Sicily, which included
part of the mainland of Italy around Naples. His family sent him at age 5 to the Benedictine
monastery of Monte Casino to train as a monk.
Later, Aquinas attended the University of Naples where he first encountered the writings of
Aristotle. Against his family’s wishes, he joined the Dominican order at 18, taking a vow of
poverty.
In 1245, Aquinas traveled to the University of Paris where a great debate was going on about
Aristotle’s ideas. The young Aquinas studied under Albert the Great who sided with those
who believed Aristotle’s view of the world was compatible with that of Christianity.
Aquinas came to think that one should believe only what is self-evident (e.g., human beings
use reason) or can be deduced from self-evident propositions (e.g., human reason can
discover truth).
Aquinas became a Dominican teacher of religion at the University of Paris and in Italy. He
continued to study the works of Aristotle and the Muslim commentaries on them.
Aquinas wrote his own commentaries on Aristotle, which included reasoned propositions
based on certainties revealed by God. He also wrote summaries of Catholic doctrine that also
attempted to combine reason and faith.

Natural and Human Law

Thomas Aquinas, much like Aristotle, wrote that nature is organized for good purposes. Unlike
Aristotle, however, Aquinas went on to say that God created nature and rules the world by
"divine reason."
Aquinas described four kinds of law. Eternal law was God’s perfect plan, not fully knowable
to humans. It determined the way things such as animals and planets behaved and how
people should behave. Divine law, primarily from the Bible, guided individuals beyond the
world to "eternal happiness" in what St. Augustine had called the "City of God."
Aquinas wrote most extensively about natural law. He stated, "the light of reason is placed
by nature [and thus by God] in every man to guide him in his acts." Therefore, human beings,
alone among God’s creatures, use reason to lead their lives. This is natural law.
The master principle of natural law, wrote Aquinas, was that "good is to be done and pursued
and evil avoided." Aquinas stated that reason reveals particular natural laws that are good for
humans such as self-preservation, marriage and family, and the desire to know God. Reason,
he taught, also enables humans to understand things that are evil such as adultery, suicide,
and lying.
While natural law applied to all humans and was unchanging, human law could vary with
time, place, and circumstance. Aquinas defined this last type of law as "an ordinance of
reason for the common good" made and enforced by a ruler or government. He warned,
however, that people were not bound to obey laws made by humans that conflicted with
natural law.

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author.
Government and the "Common Good"
In 1267, Thomas Aquinas completed a work on government inspired by Aristotle’s Politics.
Aquinas asserted, "Yet it is natural for man, more than any other animal, to be a social and
political animal, to live in a group." He presented logical proofs of this such as the self-evident
fact of human speech to allow individuals to reason with one another.
Aquinas further observed that people tend to look only after their own self-interest.
"Therefore," he concluded, "in every multitude there must be some governing power" to direct
people toward the "common good."
Thus, Aquinas did not agree with St. Augustine that the main purpose of government was
simply to keep the sinful in line. Aquinas saw government as also helping to work for the
"common good" that benefits all. The common good included such things as protecting life,
preserving the state, and promoting the peace. Aristotle would have called this "the good life."
Aquinas addressed the problem of unjust rulers who might be a king, the few rich, or the many
poor. Aquinas noted that when rulers make laws that violate natural law, they become
"tyrants." Aquinas went on to conclude, "A tyrannical government is not just, because it is
directed not to the common good, but to the private good of the ruler, as the Philosopher
[Aristotle] says."
What should the people do about a tyranny? Aquinas agreed with St. Augustine that the
subjects of unjust rule are not obliged to obey the laws since they are not legitimate. But
Aquinas went far beyond St. Augustine and virtually all other medieval thinkers on this matter.
Aquinas argued that the subjects of a tyranny, acting as a "public authority," might rebel and
depose it. Aquinas cautioned that the people should not do this hastily, but only when the
damage done by the tyranny exceeds what may occur in a rebellion. This was one of the first
justifications for revolution in Western thought.
Aquinas further developed the meaning of "just war" that had been discussed by the Roman
statesman Cicero and by St. Augustine. For a war to be just, there must be these three
conditions:
1. A declaration by the ruler to defend the "common good" against enemies.
2. A "just cause" for an attack on an enemy "because they deserve it on account of some
fault" such as avenging wrongs they have committed.
3. A "rightful intention" to advance good or avoid evil such as punishing evil-doers and not
simply grabbing land or goods.
These conditions for a "just war" later influenced the development of international laws of war.
Aquinas wrote thoughtfully about the best form of government. He, like Aristotle, preferred a
mixture of government forms. Aquinas recognized the value of a king, "a shepherd seeking
the common good of the multitude." But he opposed an absolute monarch.
The nobility, Aquinas argued, should advise the king and limit his power. Furthermore, the
king’s laws must result from the "deliberation of reason" and have the consent of both the
nobility and the common people. These were radical ideas for a time when kings claimed no
one but God could hold them accountable.

Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
The Legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas spent his last years teaching and writing in Italy. He died in 1274 at age 49 from an
illness he developed while walking to France to attend a church conference.
At first, the Roman Catholic Church rejected Aquinas’s massive effort to reconcile human
reason with Christian faith. In 1277, the church condemned some of his writings based on
Aristotle’s ideas. About 50 years after his death, however, the church revived his works and
made him a saint.
The writings of St. Thomas Aquinas combining reason and faith became the basis for official
Roman Catholic doctrine (known as "Thomism"). In addition, his forward-looking political
ideas regarding natural law, unjust rulers, and rebellion influenced European Enlightenment
philosophers such as John Locke and even Americans such as Thomas Jefferson and Martin
Luther King.
https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-22-4-c-st-thomas-aquinas-natural-law-and-the-common-good

For Aquinas, a law is a rule or measure of human acts, whereby a person is induced to act or is
restrained from acting. He describes a law as a “dictate of practical reason emanating from a ruler”. From a
common understanding, then, a law is a precept that serves as a guide to and measure of human action.
THUS, WHETHER AN ACTION IS GOOD WILL DEPEND ON WHETHER IT CONFORMS TO OR ABIDES
BY THE RELEVANT LAW. For Aquinas, the basis of human action to be good or bad DEPENDS ON
WHETHER IT CONFORMS TO REASON. Hence, REASON is the standard by which we evaluate human
acts. Thus Aquinas thinks that there is an essential connection between law and reason for the laws that
govern human action are expressive of reason itself.

While contemplating on the origin of laws, Aquinas asserts that every law is ultimately derived from
what he calls the ETERNAL LAW. By ETERNAL LAW, Aquinas refers to GOD’S PROVIDENTIAL DESIGN
THAT ALL CREATED THINGS WOULD ATTAIN THEIR PROPER END. We are endowed with the light of
“natural reason” since man participates in the divine plan, proving us with both a desire for and an ability to
discern what is good. He further explains that “it is this participation in the eternal law by the rational
creature called the natural law”. On this view, NATURAL LAW IS BUT AN EXTENSION OF THE ETERNAL
LAW. For by it God ordains us to final happiness by implanting in us both a general knowledge of and
inclination for goodness. However, it should be pinpointed that for Aquinas, THE NATURAL LAW IS NOT
AN EXTERNAL SOURCE OF AUTHORITY. Nor is it a general deontic norm from which more specific
precepts are inferred. The natural law is a fundamental principle that is within the fabric of our human
nature. As such, it orients and gives us a desire for those goods that facilitate the kind of flourishing proper
to human beings.

AQUINAS THINKS THAT THE CARDINAL VIRTUES PROVIDE GENERAL TEMPLATES FOR
THE MOST SALIENT FORMS OF MORAL ACTIVITY. HE IDENTIFIED 4 ESSENTIAL VIRTUES WHICH
ARE INDICATIVE OF HUMAN GOODNESS. THESE INCLUDE:
1. PRUDENCE (COMMANDING ACTION)
2. JUSTICE (GIVING TO THOSE WHAT IS DUE)
3. TEMPERANCE (CURBING THE PASSIONS)
4. COURAGE (STRENGTHENING THE PASSIONS AGAINST FEAR)
Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Ref: Padilla, Reynaldo A. 2019. Ethics A Textbook for the New general Education Curriculum.Books ATBP. Publishing Corp. Mandaluyong City,
Phil.

Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Suggested Readings:

1. The Natural Law Tradition in Ethics @ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-law-ethics

2. THE BASIC IDEAS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAW OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS AS FOUND IN THE
"SUMMA THEOLOGICA"* ANTON-HERMANN CHROUST** and FREDERICK A. COLLINS, JR.@
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/148692719.pdf

Brain and Heart Drill No.2

Give specific features of the ff: Write the features below each type of law
accdg to St. Thomas. You may add/insert additional rows below if you
have added features.

Eternal law Divine law Natural law Human law Common Good

Brain and Heart Drill No. 3

What beautiful insights relative to moral behavior and moral

personhood have you learned from St Thomas Aquinas? In what
particular life instances would you apply these?

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Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.
Brain and Drill No. 4

Narrate notable and unforgettable instances in your life where REASON

OR YOUR RATIONALITY WOULD COME IN CONFLICT WITH YOUR FAITH
IN GOD. Which of the two (REASON AND FAITH IN GOD), has the
heaviest weight when it comes to influencing your moral
behavior/actions? Why?

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END OF LESSON 3

Prepared by:

PROF. PRISCILITA “NANNY” PENETRANTE PEREZ

Course Facilitator

Perez, Priscilita P. No part of this module may be reproduced or transmitted in any forms or means without written permission from the
author.