Aquinas on Law
Aquinas on Law
Aquinas talks about general law. Aquinas has definition of general law: “nothing other than a certain dictate of reason (rationis ordinatio) for the common good, made by him who has the care of the community and promulgated." According to Aquinas, the law is based on a reason. The purpose of a proper function of the law is to promote common good given out by the person who has a leadership. He talks about four types of law. These laws are eternal law, divine law , natural law, and human law. He explains eternal law as that it is nothing else but verbalized by the person who is charge of the community, he is saying that whole universe is ruled by Divine Providence. He also states that it can be called law because god overlooks to the universe just like ruler does to community. Consequently god’s reason is understood by god and its nature is unchanging, it called eternal law. Next law that he is describing is divine law. He is saying that it was necessary for human creator to have a divine law and it has four reasons. The first reason is that the man is directed by law how to properly act until the end therefore if there weren’t proportionated to their nature faculty there would not be needed directions and other law, but because human is meant to achieve an eternal happiness, it is necessary that besides natural and human laws they have to be guided by the law that is given directly from god. The second reason is according to human’s poor judgment ability on human’s behavior, man must know without doubt what he must do and what he must avoid. It is important for mankind to be guided by the law that is given by god. The third reason in that the man can come up with the law that he is capable to judge, but he is only able to judge outside act but not inside, the hidden acts. Therefore the human law it is not enough to control person’s inner state so that’s why law given by god is important and necessary. Fourthly, because human law
Aquinas talks about general law. Aquinas has definition of general law: “nothing other than a certain dictate of reason (rationis ordinatio) for the common good, made by him who has the care of the community and promulgated." According to Aquinas, the law is based on a reason. The purpose of a proper function of the law is to promote common good given out by the person who has a leadership. He talks about four types of law. These laws are eternal law, divine law , natural law, and human law. He explains eternal law as that it is nothing else but verbalized by the person who is charge of the community, he is saying that whole universe is ruled by Divine Providence. He also states that it can be called law because god overlooks to the universe just like ruler does to community. Consequently god’s reason is understood by god and its nature is unchanging, it called eternal law. Next law that he is describing is divine law. He is saying that it was necessary for human creator to have a divine law and it has four reasons. The first reason is that the man is directed by law how to properly act until the end therefore if there weren’t proportionated to their nature faculty there would not be needed directions and other law, but because human is meant to achieve an eternal happiness, it is necessary that besides natural and human laws they have to be guided by the law that is given directly from god. The second reason is according to human’s poor judgment ability on human’s behavior, man must know without doubt what he must do and what he must avoid. It is important for mankind to be guided by the law that is given by god. The third reason in that the man can come up with the law that he is capable to judge, but he is only able to judge outside act but not inside, the hidden acts. Therefore the human law it is not enough to control person’s inner state so that’s why law given by god is important and necessary. Fourthly, because human law