PHIL 2050 Lecture Notes - Vicegerent, Practical Reason
Document Summary
Natural law: correct/basic moral code, core of morality (same everywhere, doesn"t tell us everything we need to know. If the law is not well-framed, there is still a virtue to obey the law. Divine law: concerns our relationship to god directly. Natural law can be changed in 2 ways: the understanding of it, by being added to. Caution should be used in changing human because they are changing all the time, underlines the stability of the society. Aquinas believes that if a law is not just, it doesn"t have to be followed: ordinance of reason. There are two roles for reason: setting the goal, choosing means appropriate to that end. The lawmaker must belong to the whole people or to the vicegerent of the whole people: only whole people can direct human actions. To direct action, the law must have coercive power, which can come only from the whole people or those authorized to act on their behalf: promulgation.