Aristotle and natural law
NL is seen as reflecting on nature and irrational working out what leads to happiness such a normative approach is one of recommending a particular way of behaving what one ought to do
Buckle
Natural law ethics has changed over time because it has been reshaped in history it is limited in value as a practical ethic as it does not provide specific maxim’s to govern human behaviour even though many Roman Catholic moralists argue contraception homosexuality masturbation on immoral because they are unnatural
Plato and to the debates between nomos / phusis – lol which is due to the legislative actions of human beings and varies from Society to society or even within a society overtime changeable. In contrast physics referred to what was unchangeable nature or reality 4 Plato there is none changing more than reality but one which human societies because of their great variety of conventional practices are largely ignorant (forms ). 4play to natural law is the unchanging normative order that is part of the Natural World a human behaviour is subject not only to establish social roles at first and foremost to an unwritten law
Natural law Theory is usually attributed to Aristotle Aristotle tried to distinguish two kinds of Justice not in terms of their changeability because for him nature was not entirely free of Change infect the Aristotle of things nature is it in the principle of change and change will be natural if it is the work of this in the Principal he does not think the natural or real is unchangeable rationality has the most fully human characteristic is the in the principal governing distinctively human life
The stoics rejected aristotle’s biologically flavoured account of natural law and they advertise the interconnectedness of things rather than their distinctiveness as Aristotle did in terms of unique natures. The stoics or human nature as part of the natural order but they took the idea of human reason essential and they saw human reason as a spark of the logos which orders the cosmos therefore natural Law For Them is the law of human nature and this law is reason natural law is the law of right or seem reason search reason candy corrupted
Cicero prescribed the most famous account of natural law in his Republic “True law is right reason in agreement with nature.. it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting: it summons to Duty by its commands and averts from wrongdoing by is prohibitions...and there will not be different laws in Rome and Athens or now and in the future”. For Cicero laws governing human conduct with and in nature without the stoic metaphysics: the laws governing human conduct of founded in nature for example in elements essential such as human upright posture farsighted you things speech for communication census Ela feeling the social life and rational thought having these features shows that natural law was understood to be natural .
Cicero said the crowd had the incorrect view of Law as that commanding whatever it wishes well for the London man Louis intelligence is natural function this to commander right conduct and Superdrug doing it is the mind and reason of intelligent man
Cicero there is no commitment to the existence of the normative natural order it is only the belief that an individual and social level human affairs I'll probably governed by reason
Kainz
Pre Socratic Pythagoras - geometrical harmony existing in cosmos.
Sophocles antigone unnatural or divine law fidelity to family obligations antigone refuses to fogo Sacred burial rights for her brother and King creon has to forbidden it for the common good
For the stoics n(N)ature is the system organised rationally by Divine intelligence
Plato distinguishes law of nature from conventional laws but in opposite way in Gorgias proto nietzschean character says law of nature is the law of superior people and conventional laws of artificial. Plato response should consider laws of nature to be as much nature if they are Creations of mind in accordance with the right to reason.
Nature for Aristotle means is emphasis on how born with innate characteristics -to be born (natus esse). Newtonian physics Primaryily inorganic – there is no sense of intrinsically ology of functioning in a cord with certain natural tendencies or appetites (dead matter)
Rational or virtuous activity is to maintain a mean between 2 extremes that are irascible appetites can lead us tween opposites so Justice is the mean between giving and taking in a relationships with others both the Rational pursuit of the golden mean Human Nature flourishes
Aristotle’s rhetoric - handbook in art of persuasion – often cited quote
Universal law is the law of nature for the really is a natural Justice and Injustice that is binding on all men even those who have no association of covenant with each other and so Empedocles when he did says kill no living creature - doing so is an all embracing law for all men
But it Aristotle is just arguing about how a lawyer can win their case if a written law goes against a case
In nicomachean ethics Aristotle talk about natural Justice
Justice is part natural part legal - natural that which everywhere has the same force and does not exist by people thinking this or that. With us there is something that has just eaten by nature yet all of it is changeable by nature the right hand is stronger yet it is possible that all men should become ambidextrous
Natural Justice in the context of aristotle’s ethics consists of general rules for distribution exchange for transmission of goods based on the economic exigencies of human Society
His discussion of Justice is in the context of an analysis of the virtue of Justice when he sees justice for ethics as a branch of politics not in the sense of virtue or righteousness
Teleology Aristotle developed ethics based on a linear progression towards the only concrete good short for its own sake happiness.
Pk: He sees not just individual to teleoLogical goals but there is a tell us for the species as a whole and the purpose of the species is to do what it does best to reason so men should develop a rational character ( women only bear children!)
Aristotle uses an open question technique to examine versus I assume and have the pleasure wealth beauty etc and asks over and over again is the sort for its own sake or for the sake of something else he does come up with an answer that something is sought for its own sake happiness or eudaimonia. But by saying this Aristotle is reducing morality to The Pursuit of some natural good and conformity to nature so the question is happiness good is like asking is good, good - and commits the naturalistic fallacy – it defines the good terms of any of the various kinds of good
Waters
Aristotle analyse nature carefully and was keen to categorise different species according to their nature once nature determines the type of creature one becomes a turtle becomes a frog
Aristotle was aware that human beings share qualities with animals such as desires and conditions yet what is distinctive is the ability to be rational so by following reason as opposed to desires humanity will be able to fulfill the natural intended and purpose by interpreting nature
Peter
Aristotle’s theory of causation
Material cause (matter eternal but cant move itself) efficient cause (mover) formal cause final cause
Material cause explains what the objectives made of and for that the material the object could not exist new line EG pancake without milk flour and eggs it could not exist
efficient cause is what is brought up by the existence of an object buy shaping the materials to make it what it is EG the cook for the sculptor when creating a statue
Formal cause is the shape of the structure of an object that makes it what it is this is the way marble was sculptured to form the statue
Final causes a purpose or tell us of the object - in case of a statue it’s the aesthetic appearance. 4 Aristotle everything has a purpose in this world and it doesn’t matter whether it is useful or not God is the final cause in itself which causes things to be through the act of love
Aristotle is an empiricist he looked for knowledge in experience of things. All things has a matter and form matter changes formers permanent matter cannot exist without form. 4 causes
There is a first efficient and final cause what is the prime mover and also a final cause in itself and causes things to be through an active love
All things want to be in the image of God’s perfection and they are drawn to him as the all good turn really necessary being on whom all other things depend god is engaged the new activity other than intellectual self contemplation and so the final cause of human beings is the right use of moral reasoning which leads to the state of happiness....?
For the human beings to understand our final cause will help us to know how to direct our actions and fulfill our purpose a final cause is to use reason why does distinctive to us and shaping our life and thus a final cause is to live the moral life. Aristotle’s Theory logical view of ethics means that there is a moral purpose for the lives of human beings and this can be defended on some empirical grounds as a matter of observation EG The Pursuit of moral virtue for most people is an important part of their lives (and this reality exists independently of debates about the nature of causation)
One difference with natural law however is that it pursues goods which are not Marley indifferent (self Preservation practical reasonableness etc)
International theological commission
Aristotle supreme Norm of morality corresponds to realisation of essential form of nature
what is natural is moral
positive law embodies norms of natural Justice.
Sophists
Distinguished laws by convention from laws by Nature
both Plato and Aristotle considered laws of City as instantiating better or worse norms of natural Justice
Stoics – cicero
Natural law becomes key concepts
good is what corresponds to nature in a rational and physical biological way
Divine logos is the Eternal law existing present in the cosmos and give the cosmos rationality
Cicero “ the supreme reason inserted in nature which commands what must be done and sub is the contrary”
Cicero observed that “ the entire universe is regulated by the power of the immortal gods by their nature reason energy mind divinity”