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Natural Law and Natural Rights
Second Edition
John Finnis
Oxford University Press
The core of this book is its second Part. In one long movement of thought, these chapters (III–XII) sketch what the textbook taxonomists would label an ‘ethics’, a ‘political philosophy’, and a ‘philosophy of law’ or ‘jurisprudence’.
No effort is made to give an ordered account of the long history of theorsing about natural law and natural rights.
In 1953 Leo Strauss prefaced his study of natural law with the warning that ‘the issue of natural right presents itself today as a matter of party allegiance. Looking around us, we see two hostile camps, heavily fortified and guarded. One is occupied by the liberals of various descriptions, the other by the Catholic and disciples of Thomas Aquinas’
#naturallaw
Second Edition
John Finnis
Oxford University Press
The core of this book is its second Part. In one long movement of thought, these chapters (III–XII) sketch what the textbook taxonomists would label an ‘ethics’, a ‘political philosophy’, and a ‘philosophy of law’ or ‘jurisprudence’.
No effort is made to give an ordered account of the long history of theorsing about natural law and natural rights.
In 1953 Leo Strauss prefaced his study of natural law with the warning that ‘the issue of natural right presents itself today as a matter of party allegiance. Looking around us, we see two hostile camps, heavily fortified and guarded. One is occupied by the liberals of various descriptions, the other by the Catholic and disciples of Thomas Aquinas’
#naturallaw
The law of nature in the philosophy of St. Augustine
St Augustine did not recognise the existence of natural law as a sui generis separate legal order, implicitly distinguishing only the lex aeterna and the lex temporalis. Eternal law is not possible for man to investigate on his own in its entirety given the frailty of human nature (and therefore of human reason) after the fall of Adam.
Only in part are all human beings able to decode the content of the divine law by means of their reason (thanks to illumination) and this part constitutes precisely the lex naturalis - a reflection of the lex aeterna, which does not escape the cognitive abilities of man. Moreover, it is an immanent part of rational man (whether Christian or pagan).
On the essence of the law of nature in St Augustine's philosophy, Victor Kornatowski writes as follows: "standing below and encompassing the eternal law, the law of nature consists of the principles of morality written by Providence in the rational soul. Man, coming into the world, brings these principles with him, and when he reaches rational age, he discovers and becomes aware of the law implanted by God, which is for him an inner light, and the completion of which is Christ".
Thus, God can present to man the lex aeterna (i.e. His will and the truth about the ideal order of the world; norms of an immutable nature) only by means of illumination, since man himself has deprived himself of the natural possibility of knowing it through original sin. The content of the law of nature, on the other hand, is reduced by St Augustine to religiously conceived morality.
In view of this, maintaining St Augustine's quasi-tribulation of law, it is divided, according to him, into: (1) divine law (the whole), (2) the part of divine law which, through illumination, man is able to know by reason, and (3) statute law.
If the law of nature were not contentually identical to the divine law, then one would have to condemn God's command to Abraham to kill his son Isaac, or the command to King Saul through the prophet Samuel to slaughter the Amalekites one of the indigenous peoples of the land of Canaan.
Finally, the prohibition to kill other people (in principle) is decoded - thanks to illumination - by means of reason from the divine law and recognised by people as a natural law (deriving from the general principle - "do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you"). However, given that God is absolutely just, a conclusion undermining His ontological absolute would be unwarranted.
Sources
E.L. Fortin, St Augustine, [in:] L. Strauss, J. Cropsey, History of Political Philosophy, Warsaw 2010,
s. 190-193.
W. Kornatowski, The social and political thought of St. Augustine, Warsaw1965, p. 213.
R. Regout, La doctrine de la guerre juste de Saint Augustin à nos jours d'après les théologiens et les
canonistes catholiques, Paris 1934, pp. 39-44, after: A. Wielomski, Augustinian theology of law [in:].
M. Cisek, Ł. Święcicki (eds.), Crime and punishment in political and economic thought, Warsaw 2018, p. 45.
#naturallaw
St Augustine did not recognise the existence of natural law as a sui generis separate legal order, implicitly distinguishing only the lex aeterna and the lex temporalis. Eternal law is not possible for man to investigate on his own in its entirety given the frailty of human nature (and therefore of human reason) after the fall of Adam.
Only in part are all human beings able to decode the content of the divine law by means of their reason (thanks to illumination) and this part constitutes precisely the lex naturalis - a reflection of the lex aeterna, which does not escape the cognitive abilities of man. Moreover, it is an immanent part of rational man (whether Christian or pagan).
On the essence of the law of nature in St Augustine's philosophy, Victor Kornatowski writes as follows: "standing below and encompassing the eternal law, the law of nature consists of the principles of morality written by Providence in the rational soul. Man, coming into the world, brings these principles with him, and when he reaches rational age, he discovers and becomes aware of the law implanted by God, which is for him an inner light, and the completion of which is Christ".
Thus, God can present to man the lex aeterna (i.e. His will and the truth about the ideal order of the world; norms of an immutable nature) only by means of illumination, since man himself has deprived himself of the natural possibility of knowing it through original sin. The content of the law of nature, on the other hand, is reduced by St Augustine to religiously conceived morality.
In view of this, maintaining St Augustine's quasi-tribulation of law, it is divided, according to him, into: (1) divine law (the whole), (2) the part of divine law which, through illumination, man is able to know by reason, and (3) statute law.
If the law of nature were not contentually identical to the divine law, then one would have to condemn God's command to Abraham to kill his son Isaac, or the command to King Saul through the prophet Samuel to slaughter the Amalekites one of the indigenous peoples of the land of Canaan.
Finally, the prohibition to kill other people (in principle) is decoded - thanks to illumination - by means of reason from the divine law and recognised by people as a natural law (deriving from the general principle - "do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you"). However, given that God is absolutely just, a conclusion undermining His ontological absolute would be unwarranted.
Sources
E.L. Fortin, St Augustine, [in:] L. Strauss, J. Cropsey, History of Political Philosophy, Warsaw 2010,
s. 190-193.
W. Kornatowski, The social and political thought of St. Augustine, Warsaw1965, p. 213.
R. Regout, La doctrine de la guerre juste de Saint Augustin à nos jours d'après les théologiens et les
canonistes catholiques, Paris 1934, pp. 39-44, after: A. Wielomski, Augustinian theology of law [in:].
M. Cisek, Ł. Święcicki (eds.), Crime and punishment in political and economic thought, Warsaw 2018, p. 45.
#naturallaw