Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.
People tend to have varying views on numerous aspects of life and explain some significant and primary concepts differently. Thus, attempts to discuss and define natural law started in Ancient Greece; later, many brilliant philosophers, including Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Hobbes, tried to understand this concept. Overall, according to Hobbes (1660), natural law is a precept, or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same, and to omit that by which he thinketh it may be best preserved (p. 5). People need to seek and follow peace, allowing each other equal liberty, and it is their own decision to follow these natural laws to survive and avoid a miserable life (Hobbes, 1660). At the same time, the ideas of Thomas Aquinas are different. In his Summa Theologica, he stated that natural law is inherent in humans and exists in their conscience, not being a product of their reason.
Overall, this distinguishing trait between the philosophers views allows pointing to a larger difference between St. Thomas, on the one hand, and Hobbes, on the other, in terms of how they understand the place of reason in humans moral or ethical life. St. Thomas believed that God gave humans reason so that it could navigate them and guide them in their acts and decisions. Therefore, the reason is the power of God and religion. At the same time, according to Hobbes, people themselves use their reason to understand what is good or bad and define whether they need to follow the good to live happily.
Further, it is essential to mention that Jean-Jacques Rousseau criticized all prior natural law theories by stating that it was impossible to understand the laws of nature without understanding the real nature of humans. Consequently, this refers to the ideas of St. Thomas: how is natural law inherent in people if their nature is unknown? When trying to answer this question, it becomes evident that the truth is probably unavailable because, nowadays, it is almost impossible to explore human nature apart from the effects of society. Consequently, both Rousseau and Hobbes can be right about people being inherently peaceful or violent.
Reference
Hobbes, T. (1660). Leviathan (excerpts) [PDF document].
Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.