Knowing the Natural Law traces the thought of Aquinas from an understanding of human nature to a knowledge of the human good, from there to an account of ought-statements, and finally to choice, which issues in human actions. The much discussed article on the precepts of the natural law (I-II, 94, 2) provides the framework for a natural law rooted in human nature and in speculative knowledge. Practical knowledge is itself threefold: potentially practical knowledge, virtually practical knowledge, and fully practical knowledge.

In Summa theologiae I-II.94.2, St. Thomas Aquinas says that "the precepts of the natural law follow upon the order of the natural inclinations." This statement has generated much controversy, but little discussion of what the term "natural inclination" (inclinatio naturalis) means. This dissertation is a study of Aquinas's use of that term in 94.2 and throughout the corpus. Chapter I is a study of the terms inclinatio and inclinare. It distinguishes these terms from their English cognates "inclination" and "incline," examines Aquinas's use of inclinare in the sense of a lawgiver's "inclining" his subjects towards an end, and distinguishes natural inclinations from other inclinations. Chapter II investigates the sources of Aquinas's natural inclination language and threefold schema of inclinations in 94.2 and argues that natural inclination provides the "linchpin" that holds together the divergent, yet authoritative, natural law definitions of Gratian, Cicero, and Ulpian. Chapter III contrasts Aquinas's use of the term natura with prevalent senses of the English word "nature," argues that natural inclination in the sense proper to natural law is the inclination of human nature as a rational-animal composite, and argues that the "order" of the natural inclinations is within nature, not imposed by reason. Chapter IV discusses Aquinas's use of naturalis with regard to human beings, in contrast to prevalent senses of "natural" in modern English. It discusses man's natural inclination to virtue as an example of the "humanly natural." Chapter V examines natural inclination in relation to natural evil, fallen nature, sinful inclination, and reason's governance of unruly human inclinations. Chapter VI discusses how natural inclination is related to appetites and their objects. It shows that the acts of the sensitive and rational appetites are distinct from, but rooted in, "natural appetite." Chapter VII explains how natural inclination is both an intrinsic disposition following upon form and an extrinsic inclining of the created nature by God. It discusses natural inclination in terms of Aquinas's notions of divine direction by "impression," divine art, natural intentionality, and divine cognition of the ends of nature. An appendix provides an "Index of Natural Inclinations According to St. Thomas Aquinas."

If there is any one author in the history of moral thought who has come to be associated with the idea of natural law, it is Saint Thomas Aquinas. Many things have been written about Aquinas's natural law teaching, and from many different perspectives. The aim of this book is to help see it from his own perspective. That is why the focus is metaphysical. Aquinas's whole moral doctrine is laden with metaphysics, and his natural law teaching especially so, because it is all about first principles. The book centers on how Aquinas thinks the first principles of practical reason, which for him are what make up natural law, function as laws. It is a controversial question, and the book engages a variety of readers of Aquinas, including Francisco Suarez, Jacques Maritain, prominent analytical philosophers, Straussians, and the initiators of the New Natural Law theory. Among the issues addressed are the relation between natural law and natural inclination, how far natural law depends on knowledge of human nature, what its obligatory force consists in, and, above all, how it is related to what for Aquinas is the first principle of all being, the divine will.

To explore and evaluate the current revival, this volume brings together many of the foremost scholars on natural law. They examine the relation between Thomistic natural law and the larger philosophical and theological tradition. Furthermore, they assess the contemporary relevance of St. Thomas's natural law doctrine to current legal and political philosophy.

Natural moral law stands at the center of Western ethics and jurisprudence and plays a leading role in interreligious dialogue. Although the greatest source of the classical natural law tradition is Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law, the Treatise is notoriously difficult, especially for nonspecialists. J. Budziszewski has made this formidable work luminous. This book - the first classically styled, line-by-line commentary on the Treatise in centuries - reaches out to philosophers, theologians, social scientists, students, and general readers alike. Budziszewski shows how the Treatise facilitates a dialogue between author and reader. Explaining and expanding upon the text in light of modern philosophical developments, he expounds this work of the great thinker not by diminishing his reasoning, but by amplifying it.

How do ethical norms relate to human nature? This comprehensive and interdisciplinary volume surveys the latest thinking on natural law.

This thesis investigates why St. Thomas Aquinas includes sacrifice among acts prescribed by the natural law. St. Thomas grounds the natural law in inclinations of human nature that are teleologically ordered to perfection. These human inclinations reflect the overall movement of creatures to their perfection by divine providence. Since human perfection pertains to attaining God, there is a natural inclination directing humans to order their lives to God. The virtue that perfects this inclination is the virtue of religion, which is a potential part of the virtue of justice. In St. Thomas's thought, the act of sacrifice is a particular act of the virtue of religion that most perfectly expresses this act of right order to God. Sacrifice, as an act of the virtue of religion, arising from the inclination to right relationship with God, is therefore a part of the natural law. The natural inclination to sacrifice, however, stands in need of determination from custom or law. This presentation of the natural law and of religious acts differs greatly from the one offered by proponents of the New Natural Law Theory, which we use as a foil to clarify St. Thomas's position. This thesis claims that St. Thomas's account of sacrifice in the natural law may benefit interreligious dialogue, liturgical studies, and efforts of evangelization.