The 60-Second Aquinas
Lesson
Law and Reason
November 13, 1998
In Texas, it is illegal to carry a pair of wire cutters in your back pocket.
To be honest, I haven’t double-checked if it’s still illegal, but at the very least it was a crime in the 1800s.
Kind of a strange law, isn’t it? The law was passed at a time when cattle rustling was a major problem. Rustlers would snip the barbed wire fences and herd cattle through the opening. It doesn’t seem so strange, once it’s explained.
There is, for Aquinas, a significant link between law and reason: "it belongs to reason to direct the end, which is the first principle of all matters of action" (ST I-II, Q. 90, Art. 1). It makes sense that the laws that guide our actions would be in accordance with reason.
This is why Aquinas emphasizes the connection between the four types of law and reason. It is why he says the natural law is known inherently and is our participation in the eternal law. It is why he emphasizes that human laws are derived from reason and become a perversion of the law when they go against the natural law.
Put simply, laws that are unreasonable go against our very nature as rational beings.
Explanation of The 60-Second Aquinas Lesson
