Natural Law and Conscience

Start here: is anything always wrong?

Some people say that right and wrong are just a matter of culture or personal opinion. But try this: Is it wrong to torture an innocent child just for fun?

Almost no one can bring themselves to say “it depends.” That reaction is worth taking seriously. It suggests that some things are wrong everywhere, for everyone, always, not because someone made a rule, but because of what human beings are.

What a law is

Aquinas defines a law as an ordinance of reason, for the common good, made by whoever has care of the community, and made known. A good law is not just someone’s will imposed by force. It is reasonable, and it serves the good of everyone it governs.

God governs the whole of creation by His wisdom. Aquinas calls this the eternal law. Human beings share in it in a special way: by reason, we can understand what is good for us and direct ourselves towards it. That share in the eternal law is the natural law.

The first principle

Just as logic starts from the principle of non-contradiction (Lesson 3), ethics starts from a principle everyone already knows:

Good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided.

This is self-evident: once you understand what “good” means, you see it must be pursued. Every other moral principle builds on it.

The basic human goods

What is good for us? Aquinas answers by looking at our natural inclinations, the things we are drawn to because of what we are:

Because every human being has the same nature, these goods are the same for everyone. That is why, beneath all their differences, cultures across history have condemned murder, theft, betrayal and lying.

Judging an act: three sources

How do we know whether a particular act is right or wrong? Aquinas says to look at three things:

1. The object: what you are actually doing (stealing, helping, lying, giving).
2. The intention: why you are doing it.
3. The circumstances: who, where, when, how.

For an act to be good, all three must be good. A bad object can’t be rescued by a good intention, and a good object can be spoiled by a bad intention.

• Stealing to give to charity: good intention, but the object (theft) is wrong. The end does not justify the means.
• Giving to charity to show off: good object, but the intention spoils it.
• Telling a hard truth in front of everyone to humiliate someone: the circumstances and intention make it wrong.

Conscience

Conscience isn’t a feeling, and it isn’t a mysterious inner voice. It is a judgment of your reason applying moral principles to a particular choice: this act, here and now, is right or wrong.

Aquinas teaches that you must always follow your conscience, because acting against what you judge to be right is choosing what you believe to be wrong. But because conscience is a judgment, it can be mistaken. So we have a duty to form it well:

• by learning moral principles and thinking them through,
• by listening to wise people and to the teaching of the Church,
• by honest reflection on our own choices,
• by practising virtue, which makes good choices easier to see (Lesson 8).

“Follow your conscience” is good advice only when it comes with “and make sure your conscience is well formed.”

Try it yourself: three cases

Think through each case using object, intention and circumstances.

1. Cheating to help a friend. Your friend asks to copy your test answers because they are struggling at home.
2. Lying to protect feelings. A friend shows you a drawing they are proud of and asks if it’s good. You think it isn’t.
3. Reporting a bully. You see someone being bullied. Reporting it may make the bully angry at you.

For each one, ask: What is the object? What is my intention? What circumstances matter?

Read the texts

Read Summa Theologica I-II, q.94, a.2, then q.18, a.4 and q.19, a.5. As you read, ask:

1. How does Aquinas move from the first precept to the more specific precepts of the natural law?
2. Why does Aquinas say we must follow even a mistaken conscience, and yet still be responsible for forming it?