mod 5
PHI210RS Module 5 AVP Transcript
Title: Natural Law, Slavery, and Change
Title Slide
Narrator: Welcome to this presentation about natural law, slavery, and change.
Slide 2
Title: Natural Law, Slavery, and Change
Slide content: Photo of Egyptian carvings which depict slaves
Text:
· The importance of the notion of natural rights and natural law
· The questions of addressing slavery and change in natural law
Narrator: The theory of natural law was influential in providing a background assumption for the notion of natural rights, especially the natural right to liberty that has played and continues to play such an important role in American thought and culture. Moreover, natural law theory has experienced a revival in the 20th century, and has continued to play an important role in Catholic social justice doctrine, which has exercised considerable influence even outside Catholicism.
Perhaps few things provoke as much revulsion today as slavery. That there continue to be forms of slavery exercised today shocks the conscience. So a legitimate question arises: Historically, what has the theory of natural law said about the legitimacy or appropriateness of slavery? How does it address changes in society? We will look briefly at one important statement on this issue, from Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, which was mentioned in the Interaction section of this module.
Slide 3
Title: Aquinas on Natural Law and Change
Slide Content: Outer space image of the planets and stars
Text:
· General principles of natural law not subject to change
· Particular applications of general principles can vary
· The example of returning goods kept for safekeeping
Narrator: Remember that the idea behind natural law is that there is a universal, unchanging order in the cosmos. For Christians, the source of this order is God, the creator of all things. One of the ways Aquinas dealt with the issue of change is by drawing a distinction between the most general principles of natural law and the application of general principles to particular cases. The general statement of a principle of natural law is not subject to change and applies everywhere and at all times. Please see the Module Interaction for Aquinas’ statement of the most general principles of natural law. Nevertheless, the more specific the circumstances in which a general principle is applied, the more nuanced are the judgments as to whether an act is in conformity with natural law.
In general, promises ought to be kept. This is a direct implication of the third inclination of human nature, which is to aspire to truth and live in society. An instance of the general obligation to keep one’s promises is that I ought to return to my neighbor goods he has entrusted to me for safekeeping. However, suppose we provide the additional information. The object in question is a weapon and my neighbor wants it back because he wants to use it to commit an act of treason.
According to Aquinas, the greater the number of details, “the greater the number of ways in which the principle may fail, so that it be not right to restore.” (part I-II, question 94, article 4.) In this particular case, Aquinas argued, it would not be your duty to return the weapon, even though you had promised to do so. To return it would be to become an accomplice to an act destructive of social order, and the point of keeping promises is to preserve this order, not to destroy it.
Slide 4
Title: Aquinas on Natural Law and Change Due to Addition
Slide Content: Image of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Good and Evil
Text:
· General principles of natural law not subject to change by subtraction
· General principles of natural law subject to change by addition
· Change by addition is for the benefit of human life
· Private property and slavery benefit human life?
Narrator: Another way that Aquinas dealt with the issue of change is by drawing a distinction between the core, general principles of natural law, and what can be added to it. Aquinas claimed that nothing can be subtracted from the principles of natural law. But that does not prevent that new ways of doing things could be developed over the course of history. For instance, to quote Aquinas, “nature did not give [man] clothes, but art invented them.” Just because human beings are born naked, and in some primeval time wore no clothing, does not mean that wearing clothing is contrary to the law of nature. Rather, wearing clothing benefits human nature, since it enables human beings to live in a greater diversity of geographical locations. Activities and practices that benefit humanity are compatible with natural law by addition. What other practices are compatible with natural law by addition? Aquinas mentioned private property and … slavery. Neither private property nor slavery are part of the natural order of things, they “were not brought in by nature, but devised by human reason for the benefit of human life,” again quoting from Aquinas. Here, he was following the Roman conception of natural law. Do you agree that slavery is compatible with the natural order of things because it “benefits” human life?
Slide 5
Title: Using Natural Law to Argue Against Slavery
Slide Content: Photo of a pair of thick metal wrist cuffs
Text:
Do you think that you can use natural law to argue against the legitimacy of slavery? Why or why not?
Narrator: Putting all this information together, and using either the notion of modifying natural law by addition for the benefit of human life, or the idea that general principles can be tweaked when applied to particular circumstances, or both, do you think that you can use natural law to argue against the legitimacy of slavery? Why or why not?