Explain Whether Law Disposes The Human People

Kristen Campeau

Box #: G15

PHL 212 (GA 2)

Law, Conflict, and Confusion

Whether law disposes the human person for happiness?

Objection 1: It would seem by the eternal law, made evident through divine reason, man is intrinsically ordered toward the good. In obeying the law, a virtuous man may be created. In becoming a creature of virtue, man is made good and is exposed to happiness. The lawgiver is therefore obligated to order all law in such a way that it allows man to be good simply. The lawgiver is also to order the law so as to make men good as a whole and not for individual gain or pleasure.

Objection 2: The law then must also be derived from the eternal law. To grant man the disposal to happiness all human law must follow from the eternal

It is written to grant every man the opportunity to follow the good. It is known through practical reason and made self-evident by every man’s birth. Man has the ability or capacity to recognize truth, goodness and beauty through this natural law inscribed by God into the soul of each human person. Natural law cannot be over written or silenced in time. It is the knowledge of true good given to man by the Creator to provide a threshold for pure happiness.

On the contrary, I propose the law conflicts with man’s happiness. The English poet William Ernest Henley writes, “Beyond this place of wrath and tears / Looms the Horror of the shade, / And yet the menace of the years / Finds and shall find me unafraid. / It matter not how straight the gate, / How charged with punishment the scroll, / I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.” Men have been charged with free will and the ability to choose. The human person desires to control ones own happiness. Law binds man to choose what it commands. Law confines man’s choices limiting one’s

In the beginning, God created man in His image and likeness appointing him with certain attributes that define him as distinctively good. However, the Creator also gave man the ability to choose freely. In granting the human race free will, law then has the capacity to be abused or broken. After the Fall of mankind, the human person is no longer disposed to happiness by the law. In contrast laws inhibit the ability to choose freely. Man no longer values law as a means to grow in virtue and honor. There is a degree of honor and respectability seen in defiance and lawlessness. In exercising the grace of free will given to man, man will seek happiness by gaining power and justice through any means possible. Laws of the eternal, natural, human, and divine are in conflict and require deviation to provide the human soul with virtues and a path to happiness. The pinnacle of happiness is defined as the contemplation of Truth. Pontius Pilate asked Christ at His trial, “Quid est veritas?” What is Truth? Because of the Fall man no longer understands Truth fully. Law conflicts with what little Truth man understands therefore leading to confusion and unhappiness.

Reply to Objection 1: If man were good simply, he would always choose the good. Man portrays the law as a hindrance to the free will and will do what is necessary to maintain this power of will by assessing a law based upon the morality