The 60-Second Aquinas
Lesson
The Scope of Natural Law
November 4, 1998
The idea proposed in yesterday’s column – that natural law can be changed by addition – raised an interesting question: Does the scope of natural law expand as additions are made?
The simple answer is no, because natural law concerns itself and has always concerned itself with human acts: "there is in man an appetite for the good of his nature as rational … whatever this involves is a matter of natural law (ST I-II, Q. 94, Art. 3).
Aquinas argues that "moral acts and human acts are one and the same" because human acts are those which "proceed from deliberate will" (ST I-II, Q. 1, Art. 3).
Therefore, since the scope of the natural law is human acts, the scope itself does not change. Additions are made to the natural law when new human acts are considered, but the scope of natural law remains the consideration of all human acts.
Now, with regard to particulars, we can say that the natural law increases in size, because natural law considers additional human acts. As the number of human acts grows, so does the number of particular aspects of natural law.
This will be further demonstrated by an example in tomorrow’s lessons.
Explanation of The 60-Second Aquinas Lesson
