RE: Exitous in Summa Article I
Continuing on Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas spoke of the Good being desirable and its privation as evil. Blindness is an example of a material evil. But non-material evil is parasitical.
A ruler’s law is base on his reason, while divine reason is an eternal direction for us.
Aquinas wrote of the Natural Law: free will and reason is juxtaposed with instinct. As rational creatures, we are participants in God’s governance of the natural order. We understand and cooperate in this order. Through Human Law, humans are authorities and creators.
Aquinas also saw Divine Law as coming from divine revelation. This law is opposite grace — which gives us faith, hope, and charity. God made us for a supernatural purpose. Divine law can take us beyond our nature and beyond nature itself.
However, Aquinas also asserted that we can’t know everything without a written law, like the 10 commandments. Humans disagree about natural law, and human law only directs external actions. It cannot punish all evil; that is the domain of God.
In Article II, Aquinas writes of Natural Law as Practical versus Speculative; these are self-evident. We are rational and self-governing (ex nihilo neo fit, nothing new comes from nothing). With Speculative Reason, the first precedent is Being. With Practical Reason, the first precedent is the Good. All human action is toward achieving goods, the things we seek after. Man’s “thou shalt nots” protect the Good. We identify rules secondarily to nature, but responsible freedom and will preserve them.