To What Extent Does Natural Law Provide a Helpful Bade for Decision Making

Glossary:  

• Deontological- ethics focused on the intrinsic rightness and wrongness of actions.
• Telos- the purpose of something.
• Synderesis- to follow the good and avoid evil
• Natural law- a deontological theory based on behavior that accords with given laws or moral rules that exist independently of human societies and systems.
• Ex nihilo- the belief that the world was created from nothing
• Omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent, omnipresent.
• Reason - rational mental capability (enables you make decisions)
• Imageo dei – the idea that humans are made in the image of god
• Primary precepts- the most important rules in life: to protect it, to reproduce, to live in a community, to teach the young and believe in God.
• Secondary precepts - the laws which follow from primary precepts- Self-evident rules to uphold the primary precepts. The rules from more complex reasoning
• The principle of double effect- The act itself must be morally good or at least indifferent. The agent may not positively will the bad effect but may permit it. If he could attain the good effect without the bad effect he should do so. The bad effect is sometimes said to be indirectly voluntary. The good effect must flow from the action at least as immediately (in the order of causality, though not necessarily in the order of time) as the bad effect. In other words the good effect must be produced directly by the action, not by the bad effect. Otherwise the agent would be using a bad means to a good end, which is never allowed. The good effect must be sufficiently desirable to compensate for the allowing of the bad effect
• Faulty reason- our perception of good is corrupted a result of the fall.
• Real vs apparent good-
• Phronesis- practical reason [pic 1]

LOA - Natural law provides a helpful basis of moral decision making but not necessarily a helpful method for moral decisions due to it embedded in Christian moral principles.

P1- primary precepts and how they are helpful: if X breaks a primary precept then it is not a good idea. Use an example of ethnical cleansing- breaks ordered society and education of children.

P2- secondary precepts: they are the most useful aspect of natural law, when applying to moral decisions as they are a person’s interpretation of the primary precept. However they can be flawed if our reason is faulty (the fall), they can also be interpreted incorrectly: The education of children is often abused in Africa with young girls and genitalia mutilation, this affects the interpretation of the primary precepts –reproduction-