Aquinas on Law

The definition of law

- Law is an ordination of reason
- Law is ordered towards the common good
- Law is made by those who care for the community
- Law is promulgated

The kinds of law (eternal, natural, human, divine, law of concuspicence)

- Eternal law: Gods rational governance (providence) of the universe. The plan by which God moves all
thing towards its end (the good). The order of creation as promulgated by God In the act of creation.

- Natural law: Rational creatures participation in eternal law in so far as we have providence over
ourselves and others and can order ourselves and others toward the good of our nature.

- Human law: particular statutes instituted in accord with human reason for the good of civil
society.Those dictates of mans practical reason by which he devises particular determination of the
precepts of natural law.

- Divine law: Those specific ordinances of the Old and New Covenant promulgated in revelations to men
by God. Revealed law, which leads us toward our supernatural end, gives us certitude with respect to
what is to be done and what it is to be avoided, governs our interior acts as well as our exterior acts, and
guarantees that no sin at all is unprohibited and unpunished.

- Law of concuspiscence: the inclination of sensuality, which is natural to brute animals, is a punishment
for sin and thus falls under the notion of law.

Common good

- The good is that is to which every human act aims
- The common good is a whole, invisible good of all people
- The end of common action
- Primary good of society (civic association)
- All member of society have a responsibility to love and want the common good.
- It is the responsibility of these in authority to establish and maintain the common good
- Is ordered to the flourishingof those human beings under its influence.

The first (primary) precept of the natural law upon which all the other (secondary) precepts are based

- Seek good, avoid bad
- Preserve oneself
- The good of marriage
- The good of family (rear children)
- Build and live in society
- Seek truth about God and the world
- Avoid harms to other
The various sort of goods or ends to which human beings are drawn by their God-given inclinations

How human laws relate to the natural law

- Both natural law and human law reflect eternal law in concern with human beings.
- Both are directed towards the common good
- Natural laws are more perfect while human laws are subjected to change
- Human laws aremore specific while natural laws are more general.
- Human laws are established with the precepts of natural law
- Natural laws deal with necessary rather than with specific things.


ST
1-2, qq90-91
Q93, a1
Q94, a2
Q95, a2

Nicomachean Ethics

Happiness as the name of the chief good; what is meant by chief good?

- That which all human activities aim at
- The most superior good
- That is good in itself
- Is complete (final)
- Sufficient
- Well-functioning of what is proper to mankind
- Over a complete life

Happiness:
- The possession and exercise of virtues
- Is pleasant
- Requires external goods
- Divine
- Shared by many persons
- Neither animals or children are properly happy
- Permanent or stable achievement

What are the different opinions about the nature of happiness ?

- Pleasure
- Honour
- Wealth
- Virtue

What is the definition of (moral) virtue ?

- Moral virtue is a state of character, concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, determined
by a rational principle as the man of practical wisdom would judge it.

If courage is a mean, what are its extremes ?

Cowardice Courage - Rash

If liberality (generosity) is a mean, what are its extremes ?

Meanness Liberality - Prodigality

What are the four main type of moral character?

- Virtuous: does nothing contrary to reason, has no bad appetites
- Morally strong: does nothing contrary to reason, has bad appetites
- Morally weak: pursues bodily pleasure, while thinking he should not do so, like a city that pass right
laws but does not use them.
- Vicious: pursues bodily pleasures thinking that he should do so. Like a city that uses its law bu has
wicked law.

What are the three types of friendship?

- Friendship of utility
- Friendship of pleasure
- Friendship of virtue

What is the relationship between happiness, virtue and friendship ?

Friendship is a neccessity of human life. Friendship between virtuous men is the perfect friendship that
can flourish both parties as human beings. Happiness is the chief good of life. In order to obtain
happiness, one must have both friendship and practice virtues.


Republic

The myth of Gyges is employed to show the plausibility of an option that Socraties does not agree
with - what is that opinion ? (359-360)

- Those do practice justice do it unwillingly because they lack the power to do injustice
- Noone believe justice is a good when it is kept private (just and unjust person will do injustice).

Why does Socrates think that early education in music and poetry is most important ? (401-2)

- People who has been educated in music and poetry will senseee it acutely when sssomeeettthing
has been omitted. He will praise fine things, be pleased by them, received them into his soul, being
nurtured by them.
- He will rightly object to what is shameful, hating it while hes still young, unable to grasp the reason
but hell welcome reason when it comes.

Socrates uses the image of the painted statue to illustrate what important point about the city ? (420)

- We want to make the whole city as happy as possible. Nobody should be happier than anybody. We
focus on the happiness of the whole not the individual parts. If we painted the eyes purple (the best
color), they wont be eyes anymore. If we give people everything to make them happy, they wont fulfill
their role in the city anymore.

What are the four dimensions of reality and the four powers of the soul illustrated by the Divided Line
(510-1)?



If the Myth of the Cave illustrates a process of the souls liberation, what is it a liberation from ? And
what is it a liberation for ?(514-516)

Released from their bond and cured of their ignorance, from the mere visible realm to the invisible
unchanging realm. Liberation from the darkness, shadows and echoes (images), reflection of things
(things), things (mathematical) so they can face the sun (forms) that are unchangable, intelligible. Hey
will then try to reach for the form of the good.

The myth of Er teaches a lesson about the kind of knowledge we should be most concerned learn
what is it ? (618-9)

- Each of us must neglect all other subjects and be most concerned to seek out and learn those that will
enable him to distinguish the good life from the bad. We must always know how to choose the mean in
such lives, and how to avoid the extremes, as far as possible, both in this life and in those beyond it.

- The soul must be immortal, and cannot be destroyed, the choices we make and the character we
develop will have consequences after death