Lisska, Anthony J. --- "God, Aquinas, and natural law theory: the question of natural kinds" [2019] ELECD 2205; in Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance (eds), "Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 76

Book Title: Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory

Editor(s): Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: God, Aquinas, and natural law theory: the question of natural kinds

Author(s): Lisska, Anthony J.

Number of pages: 17

Abstract/Description:

Anthony Lisska’s chapter examines the contributions of Thomas Aquinas to natural law theory by placing his work in the context of contemporary analytical philosophy. The chapter draws together themes from Lisska’s work on this topic over the past two-plus decades. Lisska argues that Aquinas’s account of natural law does not depend ontologically on the existence or commands of God (although God and eternal law evidently hold an important place in his theory). Rather, Aquinas’s moral theory is based on a metaphysical ontology of natural kinds. His views therefore resonate with ethical naturalist views in contemporary analytical philosophy. In advancing this interpretation, Lisska rejects the claim defended by Germain Grisez and John Finnis that Aquinas is not (as Finnis puts it) an ontological reductivist. The natural law described by Aquinas, Lisska argues, is logically derived from an ontological account of human nature - and, specifically, the dispositional properties of human persons that lead them to pursue particular forms of flourishing.