Doing What Comes Naturally: Recent Work on Thomas Aquinas and the New Natural Law Theory

Religion ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Davis
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Natural Law Theory

2. Natural law and morality

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-73
Author(s):  
Raymond Wacks
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Moral Realism ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Law And Morality ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the relationship between the ancient classical theory of natural law and its application to contemporary moral questions. It considers the role of natural law in political philosophy, the decline of the theory of natural law, and its revival in the twentieth century. The principal focus is on John Finnis’s natural law theory based largely on the works of St Thomas Aquinas. The chapter posits a distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ natural law, examines the notion of moral realism, and examines the tension between law and morality; and the subject of the moral dilemmas facing judges in unjust societies.

Response

1983 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-449
Author(s):  
Ernest L. Fortin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Unresolved Question ◽  
Natural Law Theory

Professor Goerner has little or nothing to say about my critical assessment of John Finnis's book, in which I take it he concurs. His main concern is with some incidental remarks that I was led to make regarding the much debated and still unresolved question of the “naturalness” of the natural law as Thomas Aquinas understood it. The purpose of these remarks was twofold. First, since I had raised doubts about the theoretical viability of the modern rights doctrine, I did not wish to leave the reader with the impression that I was advocating a pure and simple return to the old natural law theory, which, although more adequate, is not without serious difficulties of its own.

scholarly journals KANT’S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE AND AQUINAS’ NATURAL LAW THEORY: A CRITICAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 01-13
Author(s):  
Ejeh Paulinus C.
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Ethical Philosophy ◽  
Critical Comparison ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Natural Law Theory

This paper titled: “Kant’s Categorical Imperative and Aquinas’ Natural Law Theory: A Critical and Comparative Analysis”, is an attempt towards a better understanding of the compatibility or otherwise, that may exist between the works of the two great minds in the history of philosophy-Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. The paper aims at a critical comparison of the basic premises of Kant’s and Aquinas’s ethical philosophy, intending to find similarities and dissimilarities as well as compatibility or incompatibility between them. This paper adopts a conceptual clarification of our discourse and engages in an analytic, critical exposition, and appraisal of the subject matters.

Is Society-Centered Moral Theory a Contemporary Version of Natural Law Theory?

Dialogue ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
David Copp
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Good Case ◽  
The Core ◽  
Important Idea ◽  
Natural Law Theory

ABSTRACT: David Braybrooke argues that the core of the natural law theory of Thomas Aquinas survived in the work of Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Rousseau. Much to my surprise, Braybrooke argues as well that David Copp’s society-centered moral theory is a secular version of this same natural law theory. Braybrooke makes a good case that there is an important idea about morality that is shared by the great philosophers in his group and that this idea is also found in Copp’s work. The idea is captured by the Functionalist Thesis, the thesis that moral propositions are made true by facts about what, given the nature of human beings and their circumstances, enables people to live together in thriving communities. I argue that Copp can accept Braybrooke’s suggestion and use it to improve his formulation of the basic idea of the society-centered theory.

Natural Law: A Reply to Brian Scarlett

1994 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-352
Author(s):  
Hayden Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Veritatis Splendor

In the final section of his article in the last issue of Pacifica, Brian Scarlett examines the use of Natural Law theory and Thomas Aquinas in the papal encyclical Veritatis Splendor and concludes that the encyclical rests on an uncertain philosophical base. The reply here criticises the arguments Scarlett offers in this section of his study, claiming that he has not established his conclusion.

The Fullness of Being: Thomas Aquinas and the Modern Critique of Natural Law

2007 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Zuckert
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Natural Law Theory

Interest in natural law theory regularly revives but the question of whether Aquinas' classic version is viable depends on whether his doctrine has the resources to respond to the classic early modern critiques that were made of it. It is argued that he does have the resources to so respond, although the response pushes the ultimate philosophic question back to the issue of the validity of his natural theology.

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