What is the natural law, and what role does it play in Aquinas Philosophy?
Thomas Aquinas explained four types of laws: Eternal, Divine, Natural, and Human Law. He wrote a great piece describing natural where he stated that “the light of reason is placed by nature in every man to guide him in his acts” (citation). This means that human beings are the only part of God’s creation controlled by reason making this natural law. Furthermore, according to Aquinas, the fundamental principle of this law is that good should always be pursued and done with ignorance of evil. He goes on to state that reason brings out certain natural aspects that are important in life. They include marriage, family, self-preservation, and the desire to understand or know God. With the help of reason, he teaches that humans can better understand evil aspects in society, such as lying, adultery, theft, and suicide.
What Role Does God Play In Aquinas Philosophy?
St. Aquinas ‘paints’ a vivid picture of God’s nature. Although he feels that humans can demonstrate God’s existence, our demonstrative actions cannot clearly show us everything about God’s character. Aquinas, however, does not attempt to explain God’s nature or God Himself, as this is something that humans cannot fathom. Instead, he goes on to investigate His divine nature by focusing on what God is not. Aquinas does this by ‘denying’ Deity those qualities that are conceptually different from what is already known. He, however, acknowledges a potential challenge to his views by stating that if we see God through utter remotion, then there is no divine reason that can describe His nature. Aquinas concludes by describing God as “Existence Itself,” or in simpler terms, God is not an animal or creature. According to Aquinas, creatures carry a specific type of existence, which is what they are, but God is not the same. His presence is not derived or received from another. He is existence itself and is the sole reason other creatures have a nature or sense of reality.
How Do We Know What The Right Thing To Do Is According to Aquinas?
Aquinas stresses the need for cardinal virtues. Virtues are habits or behaviors which make an agent perform its required movement or operation. As reason is the proper human behavioral operation, virtue is a habit which assists us in reasoning well. However, although most of these attributes contribute in a certain way to our perfection of rational, some do not necessarily help us to live morally upright lives. Some of these virtues are strict perfections of our intellect; for instance, the causes underlying the world’s operation and origin. Hence, according to Aquinas, the cardinal virtues that should guide human action include justice, courage, temperature, and prudence.
What Are The Benefits of Using Aquinas’ Philosophy For Organizational Ethics?
The moral theories of Thomas Aquinas suit the present needs for business ethics, which move past the legal realm as they link various aspects of virtue and justice ingeniously. His ideas on cardinal virtues, for instance, coordinate both public and private organizational activities through different justice-oriented behaviors or norms. He emphasizes that corporate wealth and private property should be used to serve members in the society. This will increase transparency, especially in large organizations, and ensure that company heads or C.E.Os pay respect to human reason and dignity when undertaking their duties.
What Are The Difficulties of using Aquinas’ philosophy for organizational ethics?
It has become almost impossible to determine the morally praiseworthy character traits of human nature in modern times. This makes implementing natural law policies, and cardinal virtues into an organization’s ethics model quite difficult. Philosophers, like Hobbes, have described human beings as selfish individuals who are ready to exploit others if it suits their end needs. They will, therefore, not willingly share their corporate or private wealth with the community as prescribed in Aquinas’ cardinal principle of prudence.