Fagothey: "The natural law exists virtually in every rational being"

“A common Latin word for faculty is “virtus” and from which we derive the word “virtual.” We have a thing virtually if we have the faculty for producing it, even though we have not yet the thing itself. The natural law considered virtually is practical reason insofar as it has a natural tendency for making moral judgments. The natural law exists virtually in every rational being even before his reason is sufficiently developed to form the actual judgments. As a person advances in the use of reason and “forms” his moral principles, either with the help of moral training or by his own efforts, in him the natural law passes from the “virtual” to the “formal” state. To aid people in this process of moral growth is the aim of ethics as a practical science.”

~Fr. Austin Fagothey: Right And Reason: Ethics Based on the Teachings of Aristotle & St. Thomas Aquinas

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