Natural Law and Aquinas' Theological Worldview

Aquinas on Natural Law

In this course Dr Daniel De Haan (University of Oxford) examines Aquinas’ ethics of natural law. In the first module, we situate Aquinas’ account of natural law within his overarching theological worldview. Then, we look at Aquinas’ four kinds of law, before moving on to his treatment of natural law. In looking at natural law, we relate Aquinas’ views on reasoning, his distinction between operations, powers and habits of the intellect, and his concept of synderesis to his ethics. In the fourth module, we examine the virtues, and their essential place in Aquinas’ account of natural law. After that we explore some objections to natural law, and investigate Aquinas’ doctrine of double effect as a means to respond to such objections. Finally, we discuss how natural law informs, and features within, contemporary debates concerning human rights, human nature, and morality.

Natural Law and Aquinas' Theological Worldview

In this module, we contextualise Aquinas’ account of natural law within his overall theological worldview. In particular, examine (i) the Aristotelian foundations of Aquinas’ account of natural law, and the idea of the natural law as the standard of justice (ii) moral and metaphysical challenges to the reality of natural law (iii) the organisation of Aquinas’ natural law in the Summa Theologica (iv) the relationship between Aquinas’ account of natural law and his theology (v) the relationship between natural law and the virtues.