NORMS of MORALITY

LAW – (St.Thomas Aquinas)

Ordinance of reason for the common good promulgated by the person who takes charge of the community.

Law . . .

1.Ordinance of reason –the means of the law must be based on the insight of reason.

it must be reasonable because it serves as a guide to promote what is right.

2. Common Good – the goal of the law must be for the good of the community on which it is imposed.

Law . . .

• 3. by the person who takes charge of the society ordinances carry out the force of the law only if they are imposed by competent or legitimate authority

4. Promulgated – made known to all through an official publication

KINDS OF LAWS

Law – objective norm of morality

CATEGORY

1. NATURAL LAW

2. DIVINE LAW or ETERNAL LAW

3. MORAL LAW

4. HUMAN LAW

4.1. Civil law

4.2. Ecclesiastical Law

NATURAL LAW

Refers to moral insights people are capable of knowing by means of their reason and independent of the verbal revelation of GOD.

-NATURAL means

1. Not supernatural

2. Not positive ( not emanating from the command of a legislative authority

3. found in and derived from nature of person.

CONCEPT OF NATURAL LAW

• Natural law – is the law of human conduct which arises from human nature as ordered to its ultimate end and which is recognized by the natural light reason.

Three Essential Characteristics

1. Universal – its primary principles are self-evident such that it is for all individuals with fully developed reason to have an invincible ignorance of them.

• 2.One and the same for all(unity and variability)– all peoples possesses equal moral dignity, hence they possess equal rights.

• 3. Immutable-can’t change in whatever is fundamentally good or evil

DIVINE LAW or ETERNAL LAW

• GOD is the author of laws governing the universe. He designed all the laws of the universe in His Own infinite mind.

The world is ruled by Divine Providence

The Law of Providence rests upon universal principles existing eternally in God to direct all actions and movements to their proper end.

PEOPLE DISCOVER THE DIVINE LAW IN:

• 1. Physical law which rule both rational and non rational creatures.

• ( law of gravity,law of relativity, law of aging)• 2. biological law – governs the living things• ( digestive system, predictable patterns of growth,)• 3. Mathematical laws –governs abstract quantity• 4. natural law – which is a participation of the eternal

law in the rational creature

MORAL LAW

• -CONTAINS TRUTHS AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLES WHICH GUIDES PEOPLES’S CONDUCT ON MATTERS OF RIGHT AND WRONG

• IT PRESCRIBES NORMS OF CONDUCT FOR ONE’S GOOD AND HAPPINESS AND SPECIFIES WHAT A PERSON OUGHT OR OUGHT NOT TO DO IN ORDER TO LEAD ONE TO THE HIGHEST GOOD AND ULTIMATE END – GOD

Civil laws which are in accord with the natural moral law must be

Obeyed to ensure justice and order in the society.

e.g compulsory abortion

( citizens may disobey this civil law)

Moral law ( Karl Peschke)

As a directive ordering a person’s activity towards the ultimate end.

- Obligatory demands

-counsel- Recommendations- Permissions- E.g. duty to honor

contracts, prohibitions on gatherings during epidemic

Genuine moral law must be good and holy.

therefore moral laws must be formulated in such a way that even ordinary activities fulfill the task of realizing the final goal ( divine plan)

Man and woman has the natural inclination to goodness and the capacity to distinquish right and wrong.

Moral Law as Revealed Law

1. Old Testament Law – its moral prescriptions are summed up in the decalogue

2. New Law or the Law of the Gospel• - the perfection here

on earth of the divine law- natural and revealed

• - work of Christ expressed in the Sermon on the Mount

• ( interior law of charity)

HUMAN LAWS

• DEALS WITH THE JURIDICAL ORDER OF THE SOCIETY:

• STATE• CHURCH• -maybe written or

unwritten• Legal traditions• customs

• Human Law is a directive of obligatory, general, and stable character for the common good, promulgated by one who is in charge of the society.

FEATURES:

1. Human law is enforceable

- coercion is necessary to compel lawless members of society to obedience

2.Human law is concerned with external conduct only

3. Human law is limited to particular groups of people in contradistinction with natural law

4. Human law is historically conditioned. As societies and their civilizations change , human laws change with them.

5. Human laws have obligatoryforce but is open to exceptions and

dispensation

1. Civil law – particular application of natural law in given societies

2. Church law – particular application of divine law to the Christian community

NECESSITY OF HUMAN LAWS

1. Revealed law does not provide exact rules for every moral problem

2.Frequently, natural moral law is not evident in its particular requirement

3.There are several possible ways to comply with an obligation, but for the sake of public order, one must impose as binding for all

4. Human law with its penal regulation is indispensable means for the education for people, particularly in times of frailty, and as a shield against human malice.