240. Natural Law Precepts: Unity and Multiplicity

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

• The Question of Precepts: Whether natural law consists of one precept or many precepts
• The Proportion Argument: The relationship between speculative reason (with many indemonstrable axioms) and practical reason (with many precepts)
• Synderesis and Natural Understanding: The natural habit of practical reason that grasps the first principles of natural law
• The First Precept of Natural Law: ‘The good is to be done and pursued; the evil is to be avoided’
• Natural Inclinations as Ground of Precepts: Three orders of inclination that determine the content of natural law
• Per Se Nota: The distinction between things known in themselves to all versus known only to the wise

Key Arguments #

The Proportion Between Speculative and Practical Reason #

• Just as speculative reason has many indemonstrable beginnings (axioms) that are naturally known, practical reason has many precepts of natural law
• The first principle of speculative reason is the principle of non-contradiction: ‘something cannot both be and not be at the same time in the same respect’
• The first principle of practical reason is analogous: ’the good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided'
• All other precepts of natural law are founded upon this first precept, just as all axioms in geometry are founded on the principle of non-contradiction
• Synderesis (the natural habit of practical understanding) is to practical reason as νοῦς (natural understanding) is to speculative reason

The Unity of Natural Law Despite Multiple Precepts #

• All precepts of natural law have the character of one law insofar as they refer back to one first precept
• They are unified in their ordering to the first precept, not in their numerical unity
• The unity is found in the ordering principle, similar to how a divided military command can cause problems—order depends on something one

The Content of Natural Law: Three Orders of Inclination #

• First Inclination: Man has a natural inclination to good according to the nature shared with all substances—the preservation of being. Natural law precepts pertain to those things that conserve human life and oppose their contraries
• Second Inclination: Man has inclination to certain things according to the nature shared with other animals—conjunction of male and female, education of children
• Third Inclination: Man has inclination to good according to the nature proper to reason—to know the truth about God and to live in society. Natural law precepts pertain to things that regard this inclination: avoiding ignorance, not offending those with whom one should live or speak

Per Se Nota: Known in Itself #

• Some propositions are per se nota to everyone—their terms are known to all (e.g., ’the whole is greater than the part')
• Other propositions are per se nota only to the wise (sapientes)—they require understanding of the terms (e.g., whether a perfect number can be prime)
• ‘A whole is greater than its part’ is known to all because all humans experience whole and part in daily life (eating, drinking, etc.)
• Being is the first thing that falls into the apprehension of intellect; good is the first thing that falls into the apprehension of practical reason

Important Definitions #

• Synderesis (συνείδησις): The natural habit of practical reason (or practical understanding) that grasps the first indemonstrable principles of natural law
• Νοῦς / Intellectus: Natural understanding in speculative reason; the habit by which one knows indemonstrable principles without discourse
• Per se nota: A proposition is said to be known in itself; in one way, in itself every proposition is per se nota whose predicate belongs to the notion of the subject; in another way, per se nota to us
• Ratio: The intelligible principle or formal structure underlying something
• The Good (τὸ ἀγαθόν): That which all agents act for as an end; the foundational notion in practical reason, parallel to being in speculative reason
• First Indemonstrable Principles: Those principles from which all others flow but which cannot themselves be demonstrated (e.g., the principle of non-contradiction; ’the good is to be done and pursued’)

Examples & Illustrations #

The Sophistic Argument About Whole and Part #

• A sophist might argue that ‘a part can be greater than the whole’ by distinguishing senses of whole and part
• Example: ‘Animal is part of the definition of man’ (the integral whole composed of definition); ‘But animal is a universal whole including man, dog, cat, horse, elephant’ (the universal whole of which these are parts)
• The sophist’s error shows how weak the human mind can be even regarding obvious things
• The solution: the integral whole (composed from parts) is always greater than one of its parts; the universal whole is always said of more than one of its parts

Demonstrations and Axioms #

• Euclid’s Elements contains approximately five axioms or first indemonstrable principles
• Examples include: ‘Nothing is before or after itself’; ‘Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other’; ‘If equals are subtracted from equals, the results are equal’; ‘The whole is greater than a part’
• These are the natural beginnings from which all other demonstrations proceed

Proportions in Natural Philosophy and Physics #

• Berquist describes a seminar where all students wrote papers on proportions in different areas of philosophy (natural philosophy, ethics, logic)
• Proportions are ‘a likeness of ratios’: as 2:3, so 4:6; as 6:4, so 3:2
• Einstein and great physicists discover new hypotheses by seeing proportions
• Wave mechanics was discovered by seeing a proportion
• Aristotle uses proportion to explain first matter: ‘As clay is to sphere and cube, so first matter is to man and dog’
• The most beautiful metaphors come from proportions: ‘Like the way he’s made towards the pebbled shore, so do our minutes hasten to the end’

The Bank Robbery Examples #

• A criminal hands a note demanding money, but a bank employee asks questions about a withdrawal form. The criminal becomes confused because he expected the employee to obey his command, not to act stupidly
• Another robber in St. Paul demands money from a young female employee at a White Castle, pretending to have a gun. When he reaches to take the bag with his ‘gun-hand,’ the employee realizes he has no gun and pulls the bag away
• These examples illustrate how people identify more with reason than with appetite: one gets angrier being called ‘stupid’ than ‘wicked,’ even when committing crimes

Questions Addressed #

Article 2: Do the precepts of natural law consist of one precept or many? #

Objection 1: Law is contained in the genus of precept. If there are many precepts of natural law, there are many natural laws.

Objection 2: Natural law follows the nature of man. Human nature is one as a whole even though it has multiple parts. Therefore either one precept (by unity of the whole) or many (by multitude of parts).

Objection 3: Reason in man is one only. Therefore there is only one precept of natural law.

Resolution (via Proportion): Just as in speculative reason many indemonstrable first principles exist (axioms in geometry), so in practical reason many precepts of natural law exist. All precepts of natural law have the character of one law insofar as they refer to one first precept (’the good is to be done and pursued, evil is to be avoided’). They are unified in their ordering back to this first principle, though they are multiple in themselves. This mirrors how natural understanding grasps many axioms as rooted in the principle of non-contradiction.

Reply to Objections: All precepts of natural law, insofar as they refer to one first precept, have the notion of one natural law. All inclinations of whatever parts of human nature exist pertain to natural law insofar as they are ruled by reason, and reduce to the one first precept: ‘do good and avoid evil.’ Although reason is one in itself, it orders all things pertaining to men; under the law of reason are contained all things that can be ruled by reason.

Notable Quotes #

• ‘The good is what all want’ (Aristotle, opening of Nicomachean Ethics)
• ‘A whole is greater than its part’ (example of per se nota to all)
• ‘The rule of many is not good; let there be one’ (Aristotle, Metaphysics Book 12, and Homer)