Ethics

1. Normative Ethical Theories (Religious Approaches): Natural Law A normative ethical theory taking a religious approach to moral decision-making. 1.1 Content…

Start here: Natural Law Theory In its classical Greek form, Natural Law is the opposite of moral relativism – the view…

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Here is a set of possible exam questions you could face. For guidance on how to write essays, try my book…

Assess the view that natural law is of no help with regard to the issue of euthanasia. OCR Paper H573/2 June…

Introduction This handout is a summary of a more detailed treatment in my book Kant and Natural Law, which contains longer…

An exploration of the primary and secondary precepts of Natural Law as introduced by Thomas Aquinas and interpreted by the Roman…

Natural Law – “right reason in agreement with nature” In the OCR specification, natural law and situation ethics are applied to…

Autonomous and rational   Natural law is an autonomous, rational theory and it is wrong to say that you have to…

Here is a clear, logical summary of Aquinas' natural law theory of ethics. You could try and summarise the logic of…

Roman Catholic Catechism: Natural LawExercise: 1. Cut out each quotation. 2. Group according to similarity eg relationships. 3. Produce a diagram…

aquinas poster.pdf

Veritatis Splendor 1995 Veritatis Splendor (1995) strikes a more conservative note after the liberalization of the catholic Church after Vatican II…

Humanae Vitae 1968  Pius VI Interpreting the Moral Law 4. This kind of question requires from the teaching authority of the…

Today there are many who vindicate the right to sexual union before marriage, at least in those cases where a firm…

Roman Catholic Catechism and Natural Law (paragraph numbers) 1. Natural Law shows man the way to follow so as to practise…

In Summa Theologica (I, Q79)Aquinas describes synderesis as a knowledge of first principles or an innate habit of thinking. It is…

Debate Between Natural Law and Positive Law For a full text of this excellent article by Professor Swartz of Colorado University,…

In this extract from Book 4 chapter 1 of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Javert feels the strain of the true, innate…

Andrew Stevens March 21st 1861 speech to the Confederate Parliament, Savannah, Georgia What does this speech illustrate about the weaknesses of…

Click here for a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). This can be related to the Natural rights…

Extract: James Rachels Friendliness and Natural Law  Elements of Moral Philosophy (McGraw-Hill 1993:50) By linking goodness to natural purpose (something which is…

Richard Dawkins argues for an evolved natural law of niceness or altruism, an instinct like the sex drive which evokes compassion…

source NATURAL LAW THEORY “…there is in nature a common principle of the just and unjust that all people in some…

source Some of the major criticisms of natural law have been suggested earlier but can be recapitulated in light of contemporary…

Click here to listen to Anthony Kenny consider the place of law in Aquinas' ethics (from 6 minutes in).  Natural law…

Below is a template of dominoes arranged in the correct order, with the term on the RHS and the correct definition…

Is there a Natural Law? Alan M. Suggate This article first appeared in Dialogue magazine.  Permission to reproduce this article has…

http://www83.homepage.villanova.edu/richard.jacobs/index.html

Click here for a detailed examination of the role of practical wisdom in natural law theory, by Germaine Grisez.

Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of Natural Law source 3.1 Basic image to explain Natural Law By way of beginning I shall use…

Aquinas’ Summa Theologica is written as a dialogue, where he answers objections from an imaginary protagonist (the Socratic Method).  The key…

Note: throughout the site further reading will be taken from a limited number of books (refer to the fuller bibliography for…