Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Law - Essay Example

What does St Thomas mean when he claims that law is something pertaining to reason Saint Thomas Aquinas, born in the early thirteenth century, was a Roman Catholic priest, a philosopher and a theologian. Considered by some as the greatest theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, he was one of the thirty-three doctors of the church. Besides being held in high esteem by the Roman Catholic Church as a role-model for students initiating into priesthood, he is also credited with establishing the Thomastic School of philosophy based on his ideas on natural theology. However, what he is most renowned for and what makes him still an integral part of scholastic research in the study of the theory of rights is his enduring work Summa Theologica in which he expounds his systematic theology of the quinquae viae. Summa Theologica (1265-1274) contains the gist of St Thomas's view on all aspects of Christianity including the core teachings of his age. It follows a cycle-God, God's creation, Man, Man's purpose, Christ, the Sacraments, and back to God. He delves into the various concepts of divinity and explains it with logical and simple reasoning. No wonder it has often been consulted and cited in case of religious discussions and debates over the ages. Although Thomas Aquinas does not believe in the existence of rights, he conceives of them in ways that are significantly different from Enlightenment thought. Since this essay forms a part of our Theory of Rights course, let us digress a bit and try to understand the background of this essay. A 'right' can be defined as a special advantage for obtaining a liberty, a power, an entitlement, or an immunity that someone gains because of his or her particular status. The general notion of right applies in both legal and moral contexts. It was the famous English philosopher Thomas Hobbes who introduced the English term 'right' into political philosophy with his interpretation of ius naturale as 'right of nature'. As he mentions in the chapter 14 of Leviathan: The right of nature is the liberty each man has to use his own power as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature, that is to say, of his own life, and consequently of doing anything which, in his own judgment and reason, he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto. John Locke and William Paley also offered their significant contributions towards the body of work of the theory of rights. John Locke also an English philosopher argues that God created people free and equal in the state of nature. Unlike Hobbes, who supported the theory of natural reason and natural law, Locke proposes the theory of natural right. He further said that as such in this condition, no one is naturally sovereign over anyone else. William Paley, a British divine, best remembered for his watchmaker analogy on the other hand says that rights are either natural or adventitious and that its distinction here rests on whether rights are created by society or not. It is in this background that we shall endeavour to comprehend St Thomas's views on law and its specific relation with reason. Coming back now to St Thomas, it is also in Summa Theologica that St Thomas talks about the various aspects of law and the role of justice in human community, his basic premise being that law essentially pertains to reason. It is much later in the Summa Theologica that Thomas turns to the problem of law. His skilful treatment of the subject throws light into the coherence of his thought and his confidence in the ability of reason to guide us in making ethical decisions. The Greek philosopher Aristotle was perhaps one of the first few great masters who portrayed and analysed the intent behind man's actions in their writing and tried to give it a lucid form through a well-structured approach. According to Aristotle, the first principle of all activity is reason. It is through reason that we reach an end to any problem or discussion. St Thomas too concurs with Aristotle in this basic premise. Let us now examine in depth St Thomas's ideas on law. What is law In a nutshell, it is something which binds man to act. We have already mentioned before that every action of man follows reason or logic. Following this argument, it can be safely concluded that law is an action which follows a set of rational reasoning. Going a step further, we will now analyse as to what does St Thomas mean when he claims that law is something pertaining to reason I will like to begin with the following quote: Nihil est in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu Which means: Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses. This is perhaps one of the most oft-quoted statements by Thomas Aquinas which has over the ages taken the form of a peripatetic axiom. I believe this forms the foundation on which he builds his argument on law and its relation with reason. We all know that man is a thinking animal. To put it simply, before undertaking any action, he processes it in his brain and weighs its pros and cons. This brings us to the notion of judgement. What sets man apart from other creatures in the world is his ability to use his discretion. Man uses his intellect or reason to come to the right conclusion. To recognise good and evil and to strive towards goodness in all possible situations constitutes the basic tenet of any civil society. Now it is natural that making of laws too like other human endeavours is based on his judgement and arises out of pure reasoning. But before we get more into that, let us first talk about the four kinds of law distinguished by St Thomas-eternal, natural, human, and divine. The decree of law that governs or regulates all creation is referred to as eternal law. By this he means the fundamental laws created by God for the entire world. St Thomas deals with it in detail in the question 93 of his book Summa Theologica. By natural law, St Thomas alludes to the anthropocentric approach towards law, involving the human participation in eternal law. Natural law is based on the 'first principles' which believes that the end of law is to bring about an end to all evil and to propagate goodness in the world. Man's nature provides him a set of clues to regulate his behaviour and leads him on his search for happiness. According to Aquinas, man's desire to live and spread his roots in the world forms part of his basic natural values which is also the basis of his all other values. Human law on the other hand is one which is applied to various systems established by man like societies, governments, organisations etc. It governs all the social, economic and political activities of man. Last but not the least, divine law is what has been handed down to us by our scriptures and which essentially guides our spiritual fabric. It is the basis of our relationship with God and regulates matters relating to our faith. When in doubt with respect to religion, it is divine law that shows us the right path. This was all about the four types of law recognised by St Thomas. We will now get back to the basic question of this essay about law and reason and St Thomas's justification of it. St Thomas takes into account the various arguments against man's rationality offered by various other scholars and builds his argument around that. The first objection that he takes into account says that since reason does not regulate any part of our body it has no relation with law. He quotes what the Apostle says (Rom. vii. 23): 'I see another law in my members'. In reply, St Thomas says that firstly our daily chores or activities form part of our habit which has nothing to do with the intellect. It merely follows the set pattern. However, whenever we take a conscious decision, it most certainly follows the dictates of the mind and reason. Laws definitely fall into this category of man's actions. Hence, it follows reason. The second objection taken up by St Thomas follows from the first one. To refute the argument, many scholars come up with the idea that 'reason is nothing but power, habit and act'. In reply, St Thomas says that law is not the power of reason. It is neither the habit of reason nor is it merely an action of reason. To explain the 'action of reason' he gives the example of sleep and says that if law were merely and action it would cease while somebody was sleeping. Hence, law cannot be merely defined as power, habit or action of reason. Many scholars also claim that law pertains to 'will' not to 'reason' as you need to have the will to act. St Thomas quotes the jurist (Lib. i. ff., de Const. Prin. Leg. i.): 'Whatsoever pleaseth the sovereign has force of law'. However, this would apply to situation in which the sovereign overrides the law. To please his whim or fancy in certain cases, he may avoid abiding by the law of the land. It does not mean in any way that the law of the land per se does not follow reason. A ruler giving in to his will is an aberration of law. Hence, law most certainly pertains to reason and not to will. A powerful person breaking the law does not establish that law is governed by man's will. In refuting the about mentioned arguments against law pertaining to reason, St Thomas develops his own ideas in support of it. Through these we get an insight into what he means when he says that law pertains to reason. St Thomas like Aristotle holds that there are certain things that no rational creature can be unaware or oblivious of. There are these apparent truths floating around us that we cannot fail but notice. They impose upon our minds and it is unthinkable that they would be false. Our mind perceives these straightaway and this forms the origin or basic principles of natural law. According to St Thomas, law follows the order of the common good. As such, it cannot be based upon an individual's reason but is the result of the logical thought process of a representation of the people. It is not the working of a single individual. For instance, the head of a family might make a set of rules for his family but that do not apply to the whole region. It has no bearing on anyone outside the family. On the other hand, a law for the state governs each and every citizen. It is nothing but the ordinance of reason for the common good of the people to be governed by it. Let us now discuss what Hobbes has to say about all this in his tour de force Leviathan. Thomas Hobbes was a seventeenth century English philosopher whose famous book Leviathan written in 1651 marked a watershed in Western philosophy. It established the agenda for nearly all subsequent works on Western political philosophy. In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of societies and legitimate governments and laid the foundation of one of the first scholarly works on Social contract theory. It begins with the 'state of nature' concept used by the likes of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. According to Hobbes, man is in a perpetual state of conflict with nature. He argues that the state of nature is a miserable state of war in which none of our important human ends are reliably realisable. However, at the same time, human nature gladly also provides resources to escape this miserable condition. As a result, we start looking for a solution to the problem. Hobbes argues that each of us, as a rational being, can see that a war against all of creation is inimical to the satisfaction of our interests. Therefore we readily accept the idea of peace as a means to common good. This in turn leads us to finding ways and means of attaining peace and avoiding conflict which merely leads to destruction. Having recognised the peace initiative as an imperative, we go about doing those things necessary to secure it. The sense of preservation prevails and man undertakes laying down well-thought out methods to ensure peace. Hobbes calls these practical imperatives the 'Lawes of Nature', the gist of which is not to treat each other in ways that we would not have them treat us. Here comes the notion of man's reason and man being a rational creature. Seeing his imminent doom in the wake of constant wars, he applies his reason to form a set of guiding principles for the common good of the people. These set for instructions which are binding on everybody are called laws. Laws help us to deal with this state f strife that we are naturally in and leads us towards order and bliss. It is these 'precepts', 'conclusions' or 'theorems' of reason that are 'eternal and immutable', always commanding our assent even when they may not safely be acted upon. They forbid many familiar vices such as iniquity, cruelty, and ingratitude. Some scholars however debate about the treatment of these laws. They do not agree on whether these laws should be regarded as mere precepts of prudence, or rather as divine commands, or moral imperatives of some other sort. But all of them agree that Hobbes understands them to direct people to submit to political authority. They tell us to seek peace with willing others by laying down part of our 'right to all things', by mutually covenanting to submit to the authority of a sovereign, and further direct us to keep that covenant establishing sovereignty. Even the act of relinquishing one's rights and submitting to authority arises out of man's reasoning self. For example, in the event of war from a foreign power, the citizens seek protection from the state. In return for the protection, they offer their subservience and adherence to the laws of the state. Political legitimacy depends not on how a government came to power but only on whether it can effectively protect those who have consented to obey it; political obligation ends when protection ceases. Thus, by submitting a part of our will to this common authority in the form of the laws that govern the state and abides us, we bargain for peace and happiness for ourselves. Thus, the basic notion of formulating laws arises out of the rationale of man-of common good. It is out of the reasoning and thinking man that laws take birth in the world. This connects us to the idea of St Thomas about law as pertaining to reason which is the leitmotif of the essay. To sum it up, St Thomas uses the step by step approach of dialectic to arrive at the conclusion that law pertains to reason. In it lies the inherent assumption that man is a rational creature and this is reflected in the entire process of law making, law adherence and law implementation. Being bestowed with the intellect, he uses it to differentiate between right, justice and law and uses it for his betterment. Through arguments stated above, he conclusively proves that Law does indeed pertain to reason. These form the basic concepts of political philosophy from a Thomistic point of view. Some of the great themes of Aristotelian political philosophy were transmitted and developed by Thomas Aquinas, such as the social and political nature of man, the importance of the common good, the role of virtue. In addition, Thomas developed the classic formulations of natural law philosophy by which human reason could appeal to a standard higher than positive human law. Finally, we must mention the development of Catholic social teaching which owes much to the theology of Aquinas. This rich legacy has been appropriated and transformed by two of the chief Thomist philosophers of the twentieth century, Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) and Yves R. Simon (1903-1961). These two French philosophers, who spent much time in the United States, picked up from where St Thomas left and developed a very persuasive and influential philosophy of democratic government. Their work helped to shift the axis of Catholic social and political thought away from tradition and monarchy to support for liberal democratic regimes. To conclude, I would like to say that St Thomas made an immense contribution in presenting his views concretely and establishing before the world, the logical aspects of law. It is due to his pioneering work that scholars today are able to build upon his concepts and develop new arguments in the field of the theory of rights and political theology. Sources: 1. Summa Theologica by St Thomas Aquinas 2. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes 3. Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 4. The Political Thought of Thomas Aquinas by Thomas Gilby Read More