ipl-logo

Research Paper On Thomas Aquinas

952 Words4 Pages

Thomas Aquinas’ works, the Summa Theologica and the Ethics, all answer questions proposed to him. In the Summa Theologica, many of the questions deal with law and the reason for the existence of laws, natural, human, and divine. For Saint Thomas Aquinas, all law is intertwined with each other. Natural law connects with divine law, and human law connects with both. Each type of law constitutes an important role in shaping and guiding the human being and hold an intrinsic purpose within the many human communities throughout the world: the common good. Law, overall, is attributed to human beings’ capability to reason. Law is the use of reason to order and guide human political life. “The purpose of law is to command and forbid, and since commanding belongs to reason, law is therefore an act of reason” (Jones 2015, 603). Specifically, Aquinas states that “law …show more content…

In fact, without one or the other, the laws would lose their ultimate purpose and ultimately lose hold over shaping and guiding humanity towards the common good. For divine law specifically, Aquinas states that humans are under divine law just as much as natural and human law. Divine law is the best moral guideline out of the three types of laws. Human laws are subject to human discretion, and human discretion is unreliable and sinful if humans do not follow the laws that God has put into place in His creations, as God’s reason is perfect in all aspects. Divine or eternal law would be all-encompassing since God is ruler of all of creation. “…law is simply a dictate of practical reason by a ruler who governs a perfect community. But supposing that God’s providence rules the world, as I maintained in the First Part, his reason evidently governs the entire community of the universe.” (Aquinas 2002,

Show More
Related
1107 Words | 5 Pages

King references organized religion throughout his letter and considering that the letter was mainly directed towards the clergymen, religion proves to be a continuous theme throughout the letter and may be the cause for one of the strongest arguments in the letter. Part of this argument is seen when King proposes a question on what makes a law just or unjust. King references St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest medieval Christian philosophers and one of the greatest church authorities, when he states, “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (382).

Read More
1070 Words | 5 Pages

The Eternal law is a plan of divine wisdom which is to direct all actions of rational creatures(Q93.1) The eternal law is not selected for the few but all members of any regime(93.1). However, people who rule and live in vice do not live for God. People who rule for virtue and by virtue know who do is and wish to follow God. The men can choose whether to be in the heavenly regime or not.

Read More
1116 Words | 5 Pages

Saint Thomas Aquinas and William Penn both explored the relationship between moral character and the rule of law. In the 13th century, Aquinas carefully considered the virtuous life of man and its aim at “the beatitude of heaven,” which is the “end to which his whole life and all his actions are ordered” (504, 491). Four centuries later, William Penn focused more on the ends of government than of man, but he does specify that God chose man as “his deputy” to rule the world (38). Despite this designation, Penn clarifies that government is only necessary because of the Fall when man strayed from the holy law. Penn presents two ends of government: “to terrify evil doers” and “to cherish those that do well” (38).

Read More
421 Words | 2 Pages

Explain Natural Moral Law (25 Marks) Natural Moral Law is a deontological, absolutist theory. It revolves around the idea that there is a definite right or wrong action itself, irrespective of the consequences, and that it is universally applicable; it can be applied to all rational human beings. Aquinas believed that ‘conformity to the Law would lead to human happiness’. Catholic moral law is derived from this theory, as it is based on the teachings of the Church and the Bible. Natural Moral Law sets out five primary precepts; Preserve Life, Ordered Society, Worship, Education, Reproduction and is based around the fact that if an action upholds all five of these primary precepts then it is morally good or right.

Read More
547 Words | 3 Pages

“Natural law theory holds that human moral action is grounded in the essential structure of reality itself” (Livingston, 263). Earlier Christian writers believed that they know naturally what God wants them to do in their minds and hearts and has a sense of what’s right and wrong. St. Thomas Aquinas believed that God designed natural law so that humans can partake in God’s eternal law. He spread the word among the Catholic faith and has held a place among Catholic moral theologians. He believes that everything in nature was created and had an order by God and that human beings must have a natural reason to discover what is best for us in order to achieve the end.

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

Numerous philosophers had their own particular perspective of natural law including Thomas Hobbes and St. Thomas Aquinas. Natural Law initially began in Ancient Greece and was an imperative part in government. Natural Law is said to exit within all of us with the ability of reason. Contradicting to Aquinas, Hobbes says that in order to do good, we must be forced to do good by the state. Aquinas says natural law exists in your conscience.

Read More
505 Words | 3 Pages

The laws stand as a basic understanding of right from wrong and allowed civilizations to keep the most peace among their people as they

Read More
421 Words | 2 Pages

Do you agree that social law should be based on or derive from the Divine law? a. Divine law is a law that comes directly from the will of God it is dependent on human while social laws are Heaven’s collection. Regarding Heaven, a conscious entity could intervene in human affairs. Therefore, when people act in agreement with these laws, they tend to prosper, if they do not they suffer in various ways.

Read More
621 Words | 3 Pages

In other words, the Law was to prove to us that we needed something greater. Even when the laws were written out in detail, mankind could not be faithful to God, demonstrating that we are not equipped to successfully develop and grow as a society without guidance from God. However, mankind saw that we could not be faithful so instead of looking to the promise of the One who was and is coming to save us all, we decided to rely on ourselves which eventually gave birth to what we know today as Secular Intellectualism. Society now believes that God is tolerant of all choices, behaviors, and opinions.

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

One of his great contribution was the natural knowledge theory. He believed that some knowledge comes by the natural reason, he means that there is a racial experience, a conscious life that men, as men, share, which begins with the perception of the external world and rise to philosophy. Ultimately, he believes that we are born with some morals that we do not learn over time but born knowing passed down by generation and centuries later, for example, knowing the difference between good and evil and that it is something universal and does not change over time. During his work Thomas, was unbiased even as a christian he did not use ecclesiastical theocracy but instead he replaced it with treatise that described experimental and and rational attempts at government, Aquinas composed this treatise in the De regimine principum (On the government of princes) - for the king of Cyprus in 1266.

Read More
487 Words | 2 Pages

Thomas Aquinas, born in Sicily, created a “new” synthesis of knowledge, originating from Aristotle. (Wogaman, 87) This new knowledge was influenced by, his knowledge from the monastic order, the evolving conceptions of the church and sacrament, and the influence of Augustine. Aquinas believed, originating for Aristotle, in a basic conception of reality and this conception had to be considered in relation to the true end or telos, which is the fulfillment in a “good life. “ (Wogaman, 88) Aquinas believes that there are two types of human good, first being temporal, which is in the human life, and second being, eternal.

Read More
739 Words | 3 Pages

The Law is based on its ability to reveal the regulations and requirements of God. In essence, the Law says that if someone can perfectly perform the actions of the Law then they will meet the demands of the Law. Unfortunately, even if one could meet the demands, all of human nature is doomed through the sin of Adam. Adam’s infection of the human race has caused all to now be brought under sins

Read More
1446 Words | 6 Pages

Christian theologian and philosopher St. Augustine of Hippo once wrote “lex iniusta non est lex”, which his Latin for “an unjust law is no law at all”. This idea is one of the fundamental tenets of natural law theory and has been echoed not only by other theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, but frequently in philosophical, legal and civic discourse. In The Concept of Law, H.L.A Hart explores the relationship between justice, morality, and the law. Noting that “justice should have a most prominent place in the criticism of legal arrangements,” (Hart 157) Hart seeks to illustrate that “it is a distinct segment of morality, and that laws and the administration of laws may have or lack excellences of certain kinds” (Hart 157). To demonstrate

Read More
2011 Words | 9 Pages

Humans are subject to follow Natural Law, which is man's participation in the Eternal Law through reason. Written on man's heart at birth, Natural Law is used to differ between good and evil, or right and wrong. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says “natural law provides a said foundation which he builds the structure of moral rules to guide his choices (CCC 1959). There are two characteristics of the natural law: universality, meaning it applies to everyone and immutability, meaning it does not change. Natural law states that man is to know what is right and wrong.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

Law is present in our daily life and in everything we do. We cannot think a second without law. Whatever we can see around us everything is connected with the law. Sometimes we can see it and sometimes we cannot see but feel it. Law is not just a thing to obey for yourself but making a peaceful society.

Read More

More about Research Paper On Thomas Aquinas

Related Topics

Open Document