NATURAL LAW ESSAY PLANNING DOCUMENT
Possible essay titles:
‘Natural Law is too rigid to be useful’ Discuss (20)
Asses the view that natural law does not explain why people make wrong moral decisions (40)
Critically asses the view that natural law is good in theory but not in practice
Natural Law has no serious weaknesses (40)
To what extent does natural law provide a helpful method for moral decision making (40)
, GENERAL NATURAL LAW QUESTION- could be manipulated to answer any question
INTRO
What is natural law:
- Aquinas ethical theory of natural law is a deontological absolutist theory- actions are seen as having
intrinsic moral worth
- Aquinas believes that actions are either right or wrong regardless of the circumstance
- The fundamental belief of natural law is that g-d is the ultimate source of morality and has created
that universe with a specific structure to meet its purpose, telos.
- “the pattern of life lives according to reason”
- Living in alignment with g-ds order is living morally- following the primary and secondary precepts with
our natural synderesis- using our reason to discover how to live morally
My line of argument: whilst it could be argued that natural moral law is helpful I would argue that this is only
true to an extent as its absolutist nature makes the school of thought too rigid and inflexible
Possible essay titles:
‘Natural Law is too rigid to be useful’ Discuss (20)
Asses the view that natural law does not explain why people make wrong moral decisions (40)
Critically asses the view that natural law is good in theory but not in practice
Natural Law has no serious weaknesses (40)
To what extent does natural law provide a helpful method for moral decision making (40)
, GENERAL NATURAL LAW QUESTION- could be manipulated to answer any question
INTRO
What is natural law:
- Aquinas ethical theory of natural law is a deontological absolutist theory- actions are seen as having
intrinsic moral worth
- Aquinas believes that actions are either right or wrong regardless of the circumstance
- The fundamental belief of natural law is that g-d is the ultimate source of morality and has created
that universe with a specific structure to meet its purpose, telos.
- “the pattern of life lives according to reason”
- Living in alignment with g-ds order is living morally- following the primary and secondary precepts with
our natural synderesis- using our reason to discover how to live morally
My line of argument: whilst it could be argued that natural moral law is helpful I would argue that this is only
true to an extent as its absolutist nature makes the school of thought too rigid and inflexible
