SYNDERESIS AND THE NATURAL LAW

The article discusses St. Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of synderesis as the infallible habit of reading the first principles of action. It also considers the opinio communis of the scholastics in the light of which the voice of synderesis is not only infallible, but immutable and inextinguishable as well. It concludes that we have, as human beings, the ability to discover without discursive thought what is good and the ability to read the fundamental direction to the good, and so we are also capable of ordering laws and rights to the real good of man. KEYWORDS: synderesis, conscience, natural law, Thomas Aquinas, ethics, good, law, right.