Abstract
The basic philosophical vision and ethical principles of Catholic Natural Law claim universality. Natural Law thinking aspires to objectivity and universality and at the same time is open to the continuing influence from history and politics. The background principles of positive law historically go by the name of Natural Law. Suffering and injustice contribute to a vision both of the structure of human existence and of what we mean by humane law and ethics. When we confront a cultural crisis, Natural Law, looks not to the past but to the future. Few people today talk of the ethical dimensions of social realities in terms of Natural Law. This is true both in the Church and in the State. In bioethics, the principles rooted in the universal structure of human life have to provide direction and regulations on the playing field of contemporary life and medicine. A liberal Catholic perspective tries to keep in play the universal and the particular aspects of Natural Law reasoning.
Highlights
The basic philosophical vision and ethical principles of Catholic Natural Law claim universality
The idea of an objective structure to human nature which serves as a foundation for ethical judgment is not peculiar or unique to Catholic thinking
Natural Law thinking aspires to objectivity and universality and at the same time is open to the continuing influence from history and politics
Summary
It was Gian Battista Vico (1668-1744) who first drew attention to the way human beings acted in history as the surest route to understanding human nature.[4]. This Natural Law moral teaching makes very good sense in an agricultural society and an underpopulated world. Justice conditioned by socio-cultural factors and tied to changing concrete situations It is never truth, a goodness, or a right, “given” in the sense of a static atemporal reality “out there” somewhere in the abstract and changeless world of eternal forms. A goodness, or a right, “given” in the sense of a static atemporal reality “out there” somewhere in the abstract and changeless world of eternal forms It is, precisely this latter mistaken notion that has created a way of understanding Catholic ethics and moral reachings which encourages passive acceptance of past solutions and leads to the widespread impression that the official Church is out of contact with reality. By recapturing a liberal Catholic perspective on Natural Law can Church authorities recapture the respect of other Christians for its moral teachings and even the respect of faithful practioners of the Catholic faith
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