Why are the principles of practical reason called natural law? His position has undergone some development in its various presentations. The intellect is not theoretical by nature and practical only by education. at II.8.4. It is not equivalent, for example, to self-preservation, and it is as much a mistake to identify one particular precept as another with the first principle of practical reason. The theoretical character of the principle for Maritain is emphasized by his first formulation of it as a metaphysical principle applicable to all good and all action. Of course, good in the primary precept is not a transcendental expression denoting all things. For Aquinas, practical reason not only has a peculiar subject matter, but it is related to its subject matter in a peculiar way, for practical reason introduces the order it knows, while theoretical reason adopts the order it finds. Copyright 2023 The Witherspoon Institute. The imperative not only provides rational direction for action, but it also contains motive force derived from an antecedent act of the will bearing upon the object of the action. Therefore this is the primary precept of law: Good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided. Hence the primary indemonstrable principle is: But just as being is the first thing to fall within the unrestricted grasp of the mind, so good is the first thing to fall within the grasp of practical reasonthat is, reason directed to a workfor every active principle acts on account of an end, and end includes the intelligibility of good. This principle enables the good that is an end not only to illuminate but also to enrich with value the action by which it is attained. This principle is based on the intelligibility of being (and nonbeing), and all other principles are based on this one, as Aristotle says in the Metaphysics.[7]. 2, a. at II.7.5: Honestum est faciendum, pravum vitandum.) Here too Suarez suggests that this principle is just one among many first principles; he juxtaposes it with Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In issuing this basic prescription, reason assumes its practical function; and by this assumption reason gains a point of view for dealing with experience, a point of view that leads all its further acts in the same line to be preceptive rather than merely speculative. In the third paragraph Aquinas begins to apply the analogy between the precepts of the natural law and the first principles of demonstrations. Nielsen was not aware, as Ramsey was, that Maritains theory of knowledge of natural law should not be ascribed to Aquinas. Practical reason prescribes precisely in view of ends. (Op. 2, c. Fr. [16] In libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis, lib. [61] The primary principle of practical reason, as we have seen, eminently fulfills these characterizations of law. pp. This participation is necessary precisely insofar as man shares the grand office of providence in directing his own life and that of his fellows. In other words, in Suarezs mind Aquinas only meant to say of the inclinations that they are subject to natural law. The insane sometimes commit violations of both principles within otherwise rational contexts, but erroneous judgment and wrong decision need not always conflict with first principles. cit. He points out, to begin with, that the first principle of practical reason must be based on the intelligibility of good, by analogy with the primary theoretical principle which is based on the intelligibility of being. DO GOOD AND AVOID EVIL 1. In this more familiar formulation it is clearer that the principle is based upon being and nonbeing, for it is obvious that what the principle excludes is the identification of being with nonbeing. Since the ultimate end is a common good, law must be ordained to the common good. Flannery transposes this demonstration onto ethical terrain. In accordance with this inclination, those things by which human life is preserved and by which threats to life are met fall under natural law. Nor should it be supposed that the ends transcendence over moral virtue is a peculiarity of the supernatural end. [23] What is noteworthy here is Aquinass assumption that the first principle of practical reason is the last end. cit. The second issue raised in question 94 logically follows. b. the view advanced by the Stoics. 94, a. Practical reason, therefore, presupposes good. We have seen how important the conception of end, or final causality, is to Aquinass understanding of natural law. The First Principle of Practical Reason: A Commentary on the. The natural law is a participation in the wisdom and goodness of God by the human person, formed in the image of the Creator. The mind uses the power of the knower to see that the known will conform to it; the mind calls the turn. It also is a mistake to suppose that the primary principle is equivalent to the precept. cit. We can reflect upon and interpret our experience in a purely theoretical frame of mind. But no such threat, whether coming from God or society or nature, is prescriptive unless one applies to it the precept that horrible consequences should be avoided. as Aquinas states it, is: Good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided. [33] Hence the principles of natural law, in their expression of ends, transcend moral good and evil as the end transcends means and obstacles. No, he thinks of the subject and the predicate as complementary aspects of a unified knowledge of a single objective dimension of the reality known. This law has as its first and general principle, "to do good and to avoid evil". Hence the order of the precepts of the law of nature is according to the order of the natural inclinations. Throughout history man has been tempted to suppose that wrong action is wholly outside the field of rational control, that it has no principle in practical reason. Aquinas is suggesting that we all have the innate instinct to do good and avoid . A first principle of practical reason that prescribes only the basic condition necessary for human action establishes an order of such flexibility that it can include not only the goods to which man is disposed by nature but even the good to which human nature is capable of being raised only by the aid of divine grace. Only truths of reason are supposed to be necessary, but their necessity is attributed to meaning which is thought of as a quality inherent in ideas in the mind. The precepts are many because the different inclinations objects, viewed by reason as ends for rationally guided efforts, lead to distinct norms of action. But if these must be distinguished, the end is rather in what is attained than in its attainment. Reason is doing its own work when it prescribes just as when it affirms or denies. Thus it is clear that Aquinas emphasizes end as a principle of natural law. Previously, however, he had given the principle in the formulation: Good is to be done and evil avoided., But there and in a later passage, where he actually mentions, he seems to be repeating received formulae. [71] He begins by arguing that normative statements cannot be derived from statements of fact, not even from a set of factual statements which comprise a true metaphysical theory of reality. Before unpacking this, it is worth clarifying something about what "law" means. 1, lect. Aquinas says that the fundamental principle of the natural law is that good is to be done and evil avoided (ST IaIIae 94, 2). The theory of law is permanently in danger of falling into the illusion that practical knowledge is merely theoretical knowledge plus force of will. It is important, however, to see the precise manner in which the principle. 6. See also Van Overbeke, op. The First Principle of Practical Reason: A Commentary on the Summa Theologiae, 1-2, Question 94, Article 2. Natural Law Forum 10, no. The first paragraph implies that only self-evident principles of practical reason belong to natural law; Aquinas is using natural law here in its least extensive sense. [10] In other texts he considers conclusions drawn from these principles also to be precepts of natural lawe.g., S.T. This participation is necessary precisely insofar as man shares the grand office of providence in directing his own life and that of his fellows. By their motion and rest, moved objects participate in the perfection of agents, but a caused order participates in the exemplar of its perfection by form and the consequences of formconsequences such as inclination, reason, and the precepts of practical reason. It is important, however, to see the precise manner in which the principle, Good is to be done and pursued, still rules practical reason when it goes astray. The end is the first principle in matters of action; reason orders to the end; therefore, reason is the principle of action. This point is precisely what Hume saw when he denied the possibility of deriving ought from is. Yet to someone who does not know the intelligibility of the subject, such a proposition will not be self-evident. Rather, it regulates action precisely by applying the principles of natural law. 2, and applies in rejecting the position that natural law is a habit in q. See Farrell, op. 1-2, q. [12] That Aquinas did not have this in mind appears at the beginning of the third paragraph, where he begins to determine the priorities among those things which fall within the grasp of everyone. No doubt there are some precepts not everyone knows although they are objectively self-evidentfor instance, precepts concerning the relation of man to God: God should be loved above all, and: God should be obeyed before all. Aquinas, of course, never takes a utilitarian view of the value of moral action. [68] Super Libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi, bk. Practical reason does not have its truth by conforming to what it knows, for what practical reason knows does not have the being and the definiteness it would need to be a standard for intelligence. done pursued and evil avoided St. Thomas Aquinas - Natural laws are good FIRST SCHOOL OF CONSCIENCE for humans such as self-preservation, marriage, Self-criticism - Judge things to our own family, and desire to know God advantage St. Thomas Aquinas - Bad for humans; Adultery, suicide, lying SECOND SCHOOL OF CONSCIENCE [78] Stevens, op. To the first argument, based on the premises that law itself is a precept and that natural law is one, Aquinas answers that the many precepts of the natural law are unified in relation to the primary principle. 1, sed contra, ad 3; q. The two fullest commentaries on this article that I have found are J. [24] Again, what is to be noticed in this response is that Aquinass whole understanding of law clearly depends on final causality. The good of which practical reason prescribes the pursuit and performance, then, primarily is the last end, for practical reason cannot direct the possible actions which are its objects without directing them to an end. The rule of action binds; therefore, reason binds. Experience can be understood and truth can be known about the things of experience, but understanding and truth attain a dimension of reality that is not actually contained within experience, although experience touches the surface of the same reality. To hold otherwise is to deny the analogy Aquinas maintains between this principle and the first principle of theoretical reason, for the latter is clearly a content of knowledge. The principle of contradiction could serve as a common premise of theoretical knowledge only if being were the basic essential characteristic of beings, if being were what beings arethat is, if being were a definite kind of thing. 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