This study constitutes a contribution to the metaphysical fundamentation of
the moral order.
The chapter dealing with «The Notion of Creation and the Metaphysical Situation
of Created Beingo lays down the metaphysical basis for the study of
the terms bonum ordinis -good of order- and bonum moris -moral good.
The chapter on «The Causeof the Order in the Universeo offers the point of
departure for passing away from the object of Metaphysics towards that of
Morals. It is interesting to find out what constitutes the cause of the order
found in the Universe and which can be captured in a first appreciation of
reality as being multiple and ordained: a unit of order which calls for an
investigation of its cause and a reduction of its real multiplicity to the unit
level. From this, there derives the necessity of distinguishing between the predicamental
and transcendental levels, and al so the introduction of the concept
of participation and of its logical vision, the analogia entis.
In this manner, we reach the problem of Being and of beings, of transcendental
causality and of the presence of Being in the nature of beings -« The Founding
Presence of Godo. From the fullness of perfection found in God as Pure Act of
Being, we can deduce explicit notions of the being and manner of operating
of God which are present in all posterior developments of the present work,
for example, good of order, divine government, etc. By this way only is it
possible for us to give the notion of morality a sound and sol id metaphysical
basis.
The chapter devoted to .God and the Created Universe» permits us to
affirm that the formal constitutive element of morality is to be found in the
ordaining or relating of human acts towards man's ultimate end. Now, morality
is to be found to be metaphysical because of its formal object, insofar as
it studies an aspect of the being as such, the good, which entails an ordination
towards that end -«Being and Perfection»- which constitutes the bonum
ordinis. For this reason, the passing from being as such to being as good,
and of the ordo rerum to ordo ad bonum, has a real metaphysical basis. The
ordo ad bonum is, as a consequence, ordinatio in Deum as a result of creation.
The ordinatio in finem is a necessary relation found in creatures and
in the divine creative action -given the free wll of God to create. It is based
upon the esse and has for its subject the supposed subsistent. It is an esse
a Deo and ad Deum, since the Final Cause is the very first of all causes.
The Final Cause -the ultimate end- is the principie of all order, including
the moral order. This is so because God gave their being to all creatures
with order, according to the plan sketched out in His Divine Providence -eternal
law- and conducts them towards their end through the execution of
His plan -divine government- and wanted to count with the rational creature,
making him partial to the eternal law and to the divine government in a
different manner than that of irrational creatures. The moral natural law is
that participation of the eternal law in man which can be known by way of
natural reason and which can be wished by free will. In this manner, man
participates in the divine government and is capable of governing himself as
well as others, of carrying out the divine order wished by God, wanting what
God Himself wants and in the same manner in which He wants it. He can
give to the good of order a new dimension: the moral dimensiono The first
basis, therefore, of the moral order is Godo The objective basis of morality is
the ordaining of everything to Godo But its subjective basis is created freedom:
thanks to it, man is capable of ordaining himself, on his own, to Godo
The ordaining to God is a good, a participation in the eternal law which
in man acquires a moral dimension, the moral goodo The moral order is the
divine order found in the rational creatureo
The moral law is universal, objective, immutable and inherent to man:
it has been given to him in agreement with his own nature, with his proper
mode of being -rational being- and his own mode of being ordained to
Godo And, as a consequence, man's freedom is not the cause of his ordaining
to God, nor its measure, but rather is created according to the eternal
law of Godo
To say that the constitutive element of morality is to be found in the
good of order is to refer to to good of order in man, because the constitutive
element or essence of morality is rather to be found in that relation,
ordinance, or proportion of human acts with regard to the endo This relation
towards the end -that is, towards God- is a necessary accident, consequent
to the divine creative actiono In human acts, however, that accident
is put forth as a determination of the operation, as an intention of the end,
or as an identification with the plan of Godo In order for that to happen
-for man to attain through his own acts the fullness of goodness to which
he is ordained- integrity is necessary in the three principies which are present
in the mora lit y of all human acts: the object, the end, and the circumstanceso