Natural Law: From Aquinas to Human Rights
Natural law theorists argue that there is a natural right, which is identified with human reason. For natural law, as in Thomas Aquinas, it depends on divine right or eternal law.
- Natural law cannot be attributed directly to God because God has willed that His features are already in human nature.
The rules of natural law, which are almost necessary conditions for any society, are self-evident to man as a social animal endowed with reason.
For Locke, natural law is the sense of a universally binding
Read MoreHume’s Critique of Causality and Metaphysics
Hume on Matters of Fact and Causal Reasoning
Text 4, p. 75: All our reasonings concerning matters of fact seem to be based on the relation of Cause and Effect. By means of that relation alone we can go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses. Factual issues concerning the future are established through causal reasoning. Events happen to others.
The issues of fact in this text refer to judgments about things happening in the world that we perceive through our senses. These judgments are synthetic,
Understanding Morality and Ethics in Society
Regulatory System
A regulatory system typically includes:
- A human model of their status and virtues.
- A pattern of behavior.
- A model of society.
Morality serves two universal human necessities: regulating conflicts of interest among people and settling conflicts between opposing intimate desires. These appear because moral standards are useful and because there is an advantage to maintaining them.
Custom, Morality, and Law
Distinguish accurately between different types of rules:
- Rules that come from custom
Platonic Ideal vs. Cartesian Reality: A Philosophical Comparison
Platonic Ideal: According to Plato’s ontological dualism, true reality exists at the intelligible level, which is universal, necessary, and immutable. The sensible world is a secondary consequence of the intelligible realm.
Descartes’ Perspective: Descartes distinguishes three types of realities: the world, human beings, and God. The world is composed of extensive substances, including the human body. Descartes gives the physical world a reality that Plato did not fully recognize. For Descartes,
Read MoreUnderstanding Metaphysics: Kant’s Critique and the Pursuit of Knowledge
Understanding Metaphysics: Kant’s Critique
Metaphysics seeks to establish the essence of realities beyond readily available information. It operates on the belief that reason can provide fundamental knowledge and reveal truth. This knowledge is considered a priori, meaning it precedes sensory and experimental reality. Metaphysics explores the essence of objects, the causes of beings, and the relationships between them.
However, metaphysics has faced challenges due to a lack of grounding and a tendency
Read MorePlato’s Cave, Soul, and the Idea of Good: A Summary
The Myth of the Cave
To convey some of his most complex theories, Plato often resorted to metaphor and myth. The Myth of the Cave is an allegory of the Theory of Ideas, and also an anthropological account of the troubled human situation. Within the myth, we discover the building blocks of Plato’s way to access knowledge.
For Plato, knowledge is closer to the truth, overcoming ignorance and deception. But in opposition to the changing and confusing world around us, the truth is in the ideal or intelligible
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