Thomas Aquinas is rightly famous for his account of the natural law, but that very account has fallen upon hard times. In light of contemporary pluralism, and our seeming inability to convince others of the truth of moral norms traditionally claimed to be known as derivations from the natural law, some have suggested that we abandon natural law, either for a kind of conventionalism on the one hand or rival, incommensurable traditions on the other. On the contrary, when we advert to just how it is that the natural law is known, we can accept as reasonable the diversity and contextuality of our appropriation of natural law, without abandoning the claim that it stands apart from, and so a means to evaluate, any particular norms that seek to enact it.
03 October 2022
How Do We Identify Ethical Norms in an Age of Relativism?
Lecture One in Biblical and Natural Law, with Fr Dominic Holtz, OP, Professor, Vice Dean, Faculty of Philosophy and Academic Director of the Catholic Studies Programme, Angelicum, Rome.
Thomas Aquinas is rightly famous for his account of the natural law, but that very account has fallen upon hard times. In light of contemporary pluralism, and our seeming inability to convince others of the truth of moral norms traditionally claimed to be known as derivations from the natural law, some have suggested that we abandon natural law, either for a kind of conventionalism on the one hand or rival, incommensurable traditions on the other. On the contrary, when we advert to just how it is that the natural law is known, we can accept as reasonable the diversity and contextuality of our appropriation of natural law, without abandoning the claim that it stands apart from, and so a means to evaluate, any particular norms that seek to enact it.
Thomas Aquinas is rightly famous for his account of the natural law, but that very account has fallen upon hard times. In light of contemporary pluralism, and our seeming inability to convince others of the truth of moral norms traditionally claimed to be known as derivations from the natural law, some have suggested that we abandon natural law, either for a kind of conventionalism on the one hand or rival, incommensurable traditions on the other. On the contrary, when we advert to just how it is that the natural law is known, we can accept as reasonable the diversity and contextuality of our appropriation of natural law, without abandoning the claim that it stands apart from, and so a means to evaluate, any particular norms that seek to enact it.
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