My plan today is first briefly to introduce certain general considerations,

essential to Thomas' account of natural law,

that are profoundly congruent with his understanding of human action,

and then to proceed immediately to consider his account of moral action

as a species of inoculation against intentionalism.

So the general consideration, St. Thomas on natural law.

Thomas defines the eternal law as the very idea of the government of things in God, the

ruler of the universe.

In Sumatelogia Prima Secundi Question 91 Article 2,

he teaches that all creatures are subject to the divine government

from whose impress they derive their inclinations

to their proper acts and ends.

Prior to any choice or action whatsoever, every creature passively receives its being

substantial nature of powers, natural inclination, consequent on form, the first application of its

powers to act, and the order of objects and ends that specifies such action from God. This is commonly

referred to as the passive participation of the eternal law. Because it is specified by the hierarchy

of ends, it is thus a passively participated teleological order.

This order is not merely physical, for example, it extends to the spiritual powers of intellect and will.

Thus prior to any intellectual act, the power of intellect is ordered toward truth.

The passive participation of the internal law is not yet law, at least not yet natural law,

because it is ontologically rather than cognitively received.

Thomas states in Sumateologia Question 91 Article 2, that the natural law is nothing other than the rational participation of eternal law,

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