Natural law and practical reason : a Thomist view of moral autonomy / Martin Rhonheimer ; translated from the German by Gerald Malsbary.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rhonheimer, Martin, 1950-

Series:

Moral philosophy and moral theology 1527-523X ; no. 1.

Moral philosophy and moral theology, 1527-523X ; no. 1

Standardized Title:

Natur als Grundlage der Moral. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.

Christian ethics--Catholic authors.

Christian ethics.

Natural law.

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274--Ethics.

Thomas.

Ethics.

Physical Description:

xxii, 620 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition, [English edition].

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2000.

Summary:

Natural Law and Practical Reason: A Thomist View of Moral Autonomy seeks to overcome misunderstanding in the traditional neo-thomistic view of natural law as well as unjustified claims of some recent currents in Roman Catholic moral theology in trying to found new, yet problematic understandings of moral autonomy. Working exclusively from a philosophical standpoint, the volume also challenges the same moral theologians on their adoption of consequentialism and proportionalism.

Rhonheimer systematically explores Aquinas's doctrine on natural law, seeking to put into evidence both its coherency and its connection with other features of Aquinas's teaching on human action. Rejecting a certain neo-thomistic, rather naturalistic understanding of natural law, Rhonheimer puts into evidence how natural law should not be called a law of nature as such, but a law of practical reason that is completely natural to humankind because reason is an essential part of human nature. Moreover, the work argues that the position, which roots in a revisionist reading of Aquinas, leads to a deeply flawed conception of moral autonomy.

Being so tightly bound up with practical reason, any conception of natural law necessarily includes an understanding of moral autonomy. Autonomy roots in reason. Only a reasonable being -- i.e., a being acting on reasons, on the grounds of personal insight into the good -- can be called "autonomous". Curiously enough, currents of Catholic moral theology have opted for autonomy understood as one's capacity of determining good in a "creative" way. According to this conception, natural law is reduced to a person's capacity of rationally "creating" conceptions about the good andthe corresponding moral norms. Rhonheimer challenges this view, showing its inner contradictions and shortcoming and its lack of textual faithfulness. He develops an alternative view of moral autonomy that does justice to both human persons' cognitive autonomy in grasping and establishing the fundamental standards of the human good and the dependence of these standards on preconditions that are not at a person's disposal.

Contents:

Abbreviations Used for the Citation of Thomas's Works xii

Part I The Law of the Practical Reason: Methodology and Conceptual Foundations

1 Natural Law and the Practical Reason as the Subject of Philosophical Ethics 3

2 The Concept of the Natural Law in Thomas Aquinas: A Theory of the Practical Reason 58

Part II Personal Autonomy, Natural Law, and Moral Objectivity: In-Depth Studies

Preliminary Note 179

3 The Model of "Autonomous Morality" 181

4 The Concept of Autonomy 195

5 Participated Autonomy: Toward a Metaphysics and Anthropology of the Natural Law 234

6 Natural Dynamics of the Reason: The Epistemological Structure of the Natural Law 257

7 The Normative Function of the Reason and Its Fulfillment in Moral Virtue 307

8 "Teleological Ethics" (I): Utilitarianism and the Deontology/Teleology Distinction 351

9 "Teleological Ethics" (II): Physicalism and Hidden Deontology 382

10 The Objectivity of Human Action: The Object of Action and the Practical Reason 410

11 The Objectivity of Human Action: Detailed Treatment of Some Classic Problems 452

12 The Objectivity of Human Action: The Object of Action and the Natural Law 491

13 Some Philosophical Conclusions

and an Orientation for Moral Theology 534.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [593]-616) and index.

ISBN:

082321978X

0823219798

OCLC:

43095906