Review Questions for Philosophy of Law

1. What is the natural law?

2. What is the eternal law?
3. What is the divine law?
4. What is human law?
5. What is the relationship of the natural law with the eternal law? What is the relationship of the
natural law with the human law?
6. What is Aquinas’ definition of law?
7. Explain the elements of Aquinas’ definition of law.
8. What is justice as a virtue?
9. What is right from the objective point of view?
10. What is right from the subjective point of view?
11. What things or claims cannot be considered as rights?
12. What is duty?
13. What is the common good?
14. What is the relationship of the common good with the particular good?
15. List down as many goods as you can that constitute the common good of society?
16. What is society? According to Hobbes, how did society come about? According to Locke,
how did society come about?
17. Why did Aristotle think that lawmakers must focus more on civic friendship that on justice?
18. Why did Aquinas advocate tolerance in human laws? What is tolerance?
19. What did Aristotle consider as the highest human good? How did he arrive at this
conclusion?
20. What is synderesis? How is this different from conscience? What is conscience?
21. Can we claim that natural law is universal, that is, valid for all men? Why?
22. Some men make errors of judgment about some precepts of the natural law. Will this fact
invalidate or contradict the existence of the natural law?
23. What is Locke’s concept of happiness?
24. What is Kant’s concept of what constitutes morality? How is this different from Aquinas’
theory of the natural law?
25. What is the categorical imperative, according to Kant?