Question

How did Thomas Aquinas’s idea of natural law influence the lawmakers and philosophers of the Enlightenment?

Answer 1

Thomas Aquinas's concept of natural law, emphasizing universal moral principles derived from nature and reason, significantly influenced Enlightenment thinkers and lawmakers, serving as a foundation for their ideas on individual rights, social contracts, and the limits of government authority.

Step-by-step explanation:

Aquinas's notion of natural law, rooted in reason and the innate moral order, resonated strongly during the Enlightenment period. His emphasis on fundamental moral principles inherent in nature aligned with Enlightenment philosophers' pursuits of rationality, individual rights, and the social contract theory. Figures like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau drew upon Aquinas's ideas to assert that governments should protect natural rights, emphasizing consent-based governance and the obligation to serve the people. The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason, human rights, and the limitation of governmental power found resonance in Aquinas's notion of natural law, shaping the foundation of legal and philosophical thought during that era.

Answer 2

The work of Thomas Aquinas was the first attempt to develop the Christian doctrine of the state on the basis of the Aristotelian Politics. He returned to the ancient notions of law and the state, recognized the importance of Roman law and the interpretation of the natural character of the state. The eternal law is enclosed in God, and the natural law is a reflection of the eternal law in the human mind. Natural law prescribes to strive for self-preservation and procreation, obliges to seek the truth (God) and respect the dignity of people. The concretization of the natural law is the human (positive) law. Its purpose is to force people to avoid evil and achieve virtue by force and fear. His philosophical and legal views were further developed in the Tomist and neo-Thomistic concepts of natural law.

Explanation