Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas PDF

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Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas Perhaps the most famous dated philosopher to support natural law was that of the Greek Aristotle, who believed that law should instil the integrities of moral character. Often described as the father of natural law, Aristotle’s ideas reflected flexibility in that he understood the same laws could not govern the whole world and would undoubtedly vary from place to place. However, those laws that were expected by nature; laws concerning natural justice i.e. fundamental rights, should be the same everywhere. The very concept of having a fundamental right stems from a collective view of morality, as it is the question of morality that determines the fact that these rights are indeed fundamental. To have this right interfered with would be shocking and unacceptable, thus general laws are created to punish those who interfere with ‘natural’ justice. Aristotle’s work was interpreted and commentated on by St Thomas Aquinas, who was an important supporter and a key individual in advancing the natural law theory. Thomas Aquinas wrote that natural law is based on the idea that “good is to be done and promoted, and evil is to be avoided” http://www.aquinasonline.com/Topics/natlaw.html If the law is therefore to be understood as a barrier between what is right and wrong; good and evil, one must first understand why such a distinction exists, and in this we turn to morality....