Week 3 Summary
Links:
A. The transition between classical
1. General issues raised: the relationship between Church
and state (from ‘separation’ to ‘theocracy’). The source of ethical values (Christianity
– or what?). Natural laws.
2. Limitations of Plato’s and Aristotle’s ideas in a
changing world: city-state (vs empire), individual (vs community). Reason vs.
faith/revelation.
3. Epicureans (Epicurus: 341 – 270 BC and the Roman poet
Lucretius: 1st century BC): individual happiness comes from detachment,
because we cannot control the world, which is random/unpredictable. Lucretius:
“great wealth consists in living on a little with a contented mind.”
Self-control à
ataraxia (tranquility).
4. Stoicism (Zeno: 342 – 270 BC, and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius 121 – 180 AD): nature is cyclical and life is a burden or a pilgrimage. Doing good is its own reward (emphasis on deeds/action). The ‘order’ or ‘logos’ is a ‘world-soul’ and is wholly good, and it represents reason. Hence all men are brothers, and there is a world-city (earthly cities should try to be based on reason). We get composure from accepting the ‘lot’ we are given. Individual life is separate from public life.
5. Early Christianity: Monotheism, and all are equal -
spiritually - before God. Hence: separation of spiritual from the worldly. Christ
and forgiveness from sin. Human sinfulness (Adam’s disobedience) means there is
a need for higher laws. We can only be good with God’s help.
B. St Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 AD):
1. Life and importance. His conversion (from paganism and
Manicheism: Good is opposed by Evil). City of
2. The need for “justice” – Extracts IV.4.
3. The “Two Cities”: “The
4. The “flesh” and the “spirit” – and that God’s will cannot
be known: (XIX 13 & 4). “Faith” is fundamental.
5. A rejection of earthly empire? (XIX 6, [21]).
6. War; peace, the relationship between church and state:
(XIX [6], [13], 14, 17).
7. The need for authority and control/regulation – obedience
to earthly kingdom but more importantly to heavenly kingdom (XIX 21)
8. The individual and God’s power: “There is nothing so
social by nature, so unsocial by its corruption, than this race... There is a
little light in men – let them walk, let them walk in it lest the darkness
overtake them.” And: “Evil wills do not
proceed from [God] because they are contrary to the nature which proceeds from
him” (V 9)
9. The state has been instituted by God, as an “external”
means to restrain us from bad behaviour…. Offences against God’s law are always
wrong. Offences against man’s law are only sometimes wrong. Even a bad state
must be accepted as punishment for our sin.
10. A “just war” is the lesser of two evils; Christian
values are “higher” (above the state.)
C. St Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274).
1. Man was created to live in a community – we are naturally
social creatures. We share with all living things the need for
biological/physical and moral well-being. The community is the means to achieve
well-being (a teleological argument, cf. Aristotle).
2. The world is accessible to reason – and reason can guide
us to finding the good. God has created
a rational order, and given us the means to understand it through our reason.
3. Man’s ultimate perfection is ‘beatitude’: the joy that
comes from the intellectual apprehension of the truth (Beatitudo est gaudium veritate.) When the intellect attains ‘the
very essence of the first cause… it will have perfection through union with God’
4. This ‘apprehension of the first cause’ is the result of
an activity that requires the whole of our person: intellect must be
supplemented by Faith and Grace, and ‘for the perfection of contemplation,
soundness of body is needed, to which all the arts of living are directed’.
5. Without some superior power to care for the common good,
individuals would pursue their own ends, or act irrationally, or find that
their interests conflict with others’.
6. There are four kinds or “levels” of “law”
- eternal law:
this is God’s plan for the direction of all things (material and living,
rational and non-rational).
- natural law is
that part of the eternal law that can be known by men (divided into ‘law of
nature’ for non-living things, and ‘natural law’ for rational beings). Rational because part of eternal law.
- human law is the existing legal code drawn up by men – we need this since no-one can grasp the whole of eternal law (apart from God!). The aim or purpose of existence (cf. Aristotle) is salvation and happiness (beatitude and eudaimonia).
- Divine law is
God’s law as revealed through Revelation and Scripture (e.g. the Ten
Commandments etc.) – its aim is to direct men towards eternal happiness
(beatitude), but to reach this state, men need Faith and Grace. s