Natural Law

In the book Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law, J. Budziszewski, approaches the question of government through nature and its limits. This book informs the reader on how natural law plays a role in answering political and ethical questions. This is done by review of four major philosophers and their works. In the following few pages we will focus on his review of Thomas Aquinas, and how his catholic faith affected his understanding of natural law as he understood the works of Aristotle.

Budziszewski’s explanation of Aquinas begins in Unit II and is “probably the chapter most sought after by those who are interested in Aquinas’s” (Rodriguez) view on natural law. To understand the differences between Aquinas and Aristotle one must first have a brief understanding of Aristotle’s view on natural law.

In the book Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law, Aristotle is considered a pagan as he does not teach the Greeks that God or religion control the world and its people. Aristotle believes that nature was purposeful and driven by natural laws that human reason could discover. This provided Aristotle the ability to explain the world and the humans within it.

Aquinas as a medieval Catholic scholar reconciled the political philosophy of Aristotle with Christian faith, resulting in an understanding that a just ruler or government must work for the “common good” of all. Aquinas thought that one should believe only what is self-evident or that could be deduced from self-evident propositions. (Parmann)

Aquinas added his own observations on Aristotle, which included reasoned plans based on certainties revealed by God. Aquinas also spent much of his life writing summaries of Catholic doctrine that also attempted to c...

... middle of paper ...

... time when kings claimed no one but God could hold them accountable. (Parmann)

In conclusion one could say that although Aquinas a large admirer of Aristotle’s differed from him greatly when the aspects of Christian faith were brought into the mix. Budziszewski’s, alludes to this very early on in the description of Aquinas type of philosophy be stating that Aquinas received his perspective from pagans, and often time obscured the Christian view to make it fit. The one thing that is clear out of reading Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law, J. Budziszewski, is that in could be used as a foundational baseline for trying to understand the different perspectives of philosophy while still in many cases realizing that you can have a belief rooted in faith and what philosophical understanding. Overall one could say that this book was a great foundational work.