NATURAL LAW THEORY

Abeleda, Canda, Flores, Guiao,

Marcelo, Punzalan, Sotiangco, Tan
OUTLINE
I.  Overview of the Natural Law Theory
II.  Philosophers
A.  Ancient Philosophers
•  Greeks: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

•  Stoics

•  Romans

B.  Christians
•  St. Augustine

•  Thomas Aquinas

III.  Conclusion
OVERVIEW
OF THE NATURAL LAW THEORY
 Ius naturale
Ius naturale is Latin for “natural law,” the laws
common to all beings.
 Law
A body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by
controlling authority, and having binding legal force
which must be obeyed and followed by citizens,
subject to sanctions or legal consequences.
 Natural Law
•  Moral theory of jurisprudence which maintains
that law should be based on morality and ethics.

•  Holds that the law is based on what’s “correct.”

•  Natural Law finds its power in discovering certain

universal standards in morality and ethics.
 2 Kinds of Natural Law

Natural Law Natural Law

Moral Theory Legal Theory
Natural Law Theory of Morality

•  Moral propositions have what is sometimes called

objective standing in the sense that such
propositions are the bearers of objective truth-
value

•  Standards of morality are in some sense derived

from, or entailed by, the nature of the world and
the nature of human beings.
Natural Law Theory of Law
•  Subscribes to the theory that there are at least
some laws that depend for their "authority" not on
some pre-existing human convention, but on the
logical relationship in which they stand to moral
standards.

•  Some norms are authoritative in virtue of their

moral content, even when there is no convention
that makes moral merit a criterion of legal validity.
 Natural Law, The History
•  Socrates
Greeks •  Plato
•  Aristotle

Stoics
Romans
•  St. Augustine
Christians •  St. Thomas Aquinas
GREEKS
 Socrates
•  Classical Greek (Athenian)
philosopher credited as one of
the founders of Western
Philosophy.

•  He is an enigmatic figure
known chiefly through the
accounts of classical writers,
especially the writings of his
students Plato and Xenophon,
and the plays of his contem-
porary Aristophanes.
 Socrates
•  Plato's dialogues are among the
most comprehensive accounts
of Socrates to survive from
antiquity, though it is unclear the
degree to which Socrates
himself is "hidden behind his
'best disciple', Plato".

•  “The only true wisdom is in

knowing you know nothing”
 Lawfulness and Law
•  Socrates was most interested in the human
condition

•  “for the soul's states of organization and order

'lawfulness' (nomimon) and 'law' (nomos), from
which people become both lawful (nomimoi) and
orderly (kosmioi), and these are justice and
moderation“
 Lawfulness and Law
•  What does Socrates mean by characterizing the
orderly states of the soul as "lawfulness" and
"law?"

•  In the moral sphere the qualities of organization

and order which are common to all true crafts
respectively take the form of lawfulness, which
gives rise to the virtue of justice, and orderliness,
which gives rise to moderation or self-control.
 Natural Lawfulness
•  Socrates' conclusion that the orderly
psychological states of moderation and justice
should be called "law" and "lawfulness" depends
upon similarly careful attempts to appeal to what
happens naturally.

•  Socrates thinks that many human interactions are

corrupted by convention, and he, too, looks only
to special interactions for indications of how
things naturally are.
 Conventional Lawfulness
•  Socrates claims that the orderly states of the soul are
"law" and "lawfulness" can easily be taken to express this
connection between virtue and conventional law
abidingness.

•  Socrates defines Gorgianic oratory by classifying it among

various knacks of flattery—that is, of gratifying others—
and he contrasts each of these knacks with some genuine
art that cultivates some genuine good.

•  Each of these knacks makes a body or soul seem good

by aiming for what is pleasant and gratifying, whereas
each of the contrasting arts fosters what is good for a
body or soul.
•  It is important point concerns legislation, which is one of
the two political arts, alongside justice, that concern the
good of the soul.

•  So just as gymnastic makes a body healthy—health being

the good state of the body—and medicine maintains this
health by correcting any threats to it, so too legislation
makes a soul virtuous—virtue being the good state of the
soul—and justice maintains this virtue by correcting any
threats to it

•  He plainly counts legislation as an art that fosters virtue,

the good state of the soul. But if fostering virtue is the end
of legislation, its ways and means are laws. So Socrates
here announces that laws, produced by the art of
legislation, foster virtue in the soul.
 Socrates’ Philosophy
•  No man is voluntary bad or evil.

•  Man is ruled by his base appetites resulting in failure to do

the right or avoid the wrong.

•  Unless a person is guided by the criterion of the absolute

good, his morals scruples, would not be tenable and it is
very likely that he would end up acting wrongly.
 What is Justice?
•  Socrates rehabilitates the conventional notion of justice as
follows:
1.  The superior = the better = the stronger .
2.  The many impose their laws or conventions on the one.
3.  So, the many are naturally superior to the one.
4.  So, the customs of the many are the customs of the
superior.
5.  So, the customs of the many are the customs of the better.
6.  So, the customs of the many are naturally noble
7.  According to the many's customs, to have an equal share
is just and to do injustice is more shameful than to suffer it.
8.  So it is (not only by law or convention [nomōi] but also) by
nature (phusei) that to have an equal is just and to do
injustice is more shameful than to suffer it.
Plato
Form of the good:
Goodness is something that is
metaphysical.
It is beyond experience.
Reason somehow clarifies the
meaning of goodness.
Not perfect.
Capable of committing evil
deeds.
A missing trait could make
something “bad.
Defining Human
Nature
Plato defined humanity in terms
of reason. As human beings we
have instincts and emotions but
above all the potential to think,
to control our feelings and
animal urges. Reason gives us
the freedom to choose how to
behave, to be selfish or altruistic,
to act on principle or
thoughtlessly.
 Plato defining “Absolute Truth”
For everything that exists there are three instruments by
which the knowledge of it is necessarily imparted; fourth,
there is the knowledge itself, and, as fifth, we must count
the thing itself which is known and truly exists. The first is
the name, the second, the definition, the third, the image,
and the fourth the knowledge.
 Aristotle
•  Greek philosopher and scientist
born in the Macedonian city of
Stagira, Chalkidice, on the
northern periphery of Classical
Greece.
•  His father, Nicomachus, died
when Aristotle was a child,
whereafter Proxenus of
Atarneus became his guardian.
•  At eighteen, he joined Plato's
Academy in Athens and
remained there until the age of
thirty-seven (c. 347 BC).
 Aristotle

•  Political Justice, lawful and

fair

•  Political = Natural and

Conventional

•  Natural Law

•  Conventional Law.
 Aristotle defining “Absolute Truth”
In his Metaphysics, Aristotle states:
Now, in the first place, this is evident to those who define
what truth and falsehood are. For indeed, the assertion
that entity does not exist, and that nonentity does, is a
falsehood, but that entity exists, and that nonentity does not
exist, is truth.
STOICS
 STOICS
•  Derived from Greek word stoa
 STOICS
•  Founded by Zeno
 STOICS
•  “Pharisees of Greek Paganism”

•  Natural Law
•  The means by which a rational being lived in
accordance with this cosmic order
•  Indifferent to the divine or natural source of that law

•  Believed that God is everywhere and in everyone

•  They think of philosophy is a “way of life”
4 UNIT IDEAS WHICH EXPRESS
HOW MAN IS LINKED TO
GOD’s UNIVERSAL LAW
Reason
Common notions
Seeds
Sparks
REASON
Man, distinct in this from all other things,
has a REASON of his own.
COMMON
NOTIONS
Certain ideas arise in the reasoning of all
men and these are the
PRECONCEPTIONS or COMMON
NOTIONS.
SEEDS
 “By nature, we are all born with the
SEEDS of virtue…
We must develop them with learning of
virtue.” – a Greek fragment
SPARKS
Nature, as the primary element fire,
implants SPARK in man.
This gift gives man not the full blown
knowledge of natural law, but the
potentiality to attain this knowledge.
ROMANS
Marcus Tullius Cicero

•  “There is in fact a true law -

namely, right reason - which is
in accordance with nature,
applies to all men, and is
unchangeable and eternal.”

•  Argues that justice does not

exist at all if it does not come
from nature.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

•  The world itself, he says, was

created for the sake of gods
and men, and anything in it was
made to serve them.
 
•  Two fundamentals of justice
Gaius
Argues that law which a people establishes for
itself is peculiar to it, and is called ius civile as
being the special law of that state, while the law
that natural reason establishes among all mankind
is followed by all peoples alike, and is called ius
gentium as being the law observed by all
mankind.”
 Ulpian

•  As far as the ius civile is

concerned, slaves are not
regarded as persons. This,
however, is not true under
natural law, because, so far
as natural law is concerned,
all men are equal.
Florentinus

Freedom is a man's natural

capacity of doing what he
pleases unless he is prevented
by force or law.
Some instances where nature is used as the
rationale of a rule derived from legal
principles.
•  According to natural reason a man's legal position
may, in principle, be improved but not impaired
without his consent.

•  According to nature the benefits of a thing go to

that party who bears the expenses and vice
versa, so that the maintenance of a borrowed
slave is on the borrower and not the lender.
•  According to natural reason expenses incurred in
the production of fruits may be deducted where
the fruits are to be returned to another party.

•  From the structure of the Roman family it follows

according to nature that the father cannot any
more bring a suit against his son than he may sue
himself.

•  It also follows that a child born out of wedlock is

related to the mother only.
CHRISTIANS
Aurelius Augustinus
 Augustine of Hippo
•  Philosopher and theologian

•  One of the most important early

figures in the development
of Western Christianity

•  Major figure in bringing Christianity

to dominance in the
previously pagan Roman Empire

•  Father of orthodox theology 

•  Greatest of the four great fathers of

the Latin Church
 Augustine of Hippo
•  Early Life
•  Studies
•  Latin Literature
•  Rhetoric
•   Profession
•  Teacher/Professor
•  Bishop
 Nature of Law

Lex Lex
Aeterna Naturalis
 Augustine and Natural Law
God’s reason is order, and His law rules this
ontological order, the order of being, of essences
and values. But since this norm is identical with the
immutable, immanent nature of God, it does not
stand above Him; it is connatural to Him, and it is
as unchangeable as He.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
•  Early Life
•  Studies
§ The Montecassino
§ University of Napoli
•  The Dominican Order
•  His Death at the Cistersian
Abbey
 Philosophy & Theology
“…the believer and the philosopher consider
creatures differently. The philosopher considers
what belongs to their proper natures, while the
believer considers only what is true of creatures
insofar as they are related to God, for example,
that they are created by God and are subject to
him, and the like.”
From: Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 2, Chapter 4
Thomas and his Influences
•  Aristotelian influences
•  Augustinian influences
The Order of
Philosophical Inquiry
Philosophy as an
“umbrella term”
His take on Natural Law
•  What is Natural Law?

•  The peculiarly human participation

in the eternal law, in providence.

•  The first principles or starting

points of practical reasoning.
The Church
•  “One God”

•  Analytical Thomism

•  Virtue Ethics

•  Summa Contra Gentiles

CONCLUSION
Summary

•  Natural Law: moral theory + legal theory = moral

theory of jurisprudence

•  Whitehead: “The concept of natural law is one of

the most confused ideas in the history of Western
thought.”

•  There are various conceptions of natural law.

 Natural Law, The History
•  Socrates
Nature of Man
Greeks •  Plato
Law
•  Aristotle

Stoics Reason

Romans Natural Law Def’n

•  St. Augustine
God’s will
Christians •  St. Thomas Aquinas
 4 Major Claims

①  There are unchanging principles of law that exist

in “nature” that define for man what is right, just,
and good, and which ought to govern his actions;

②  These principles of law are accessible to all men

and are discovered by the right use of reason;
•  Natural moral order in the universe
•  Self-evident principles that are held as truths
 4 Major Claims

③  These principles of law apply to all men at all

times and in all circumstances;

④  Positive laws are just and authoritative only

insofar as they are derivable from the principles
of law in nature.
 Characteristics of Natural Law

• Absolutism – universalizability

• Deontological – acts are intrinsically good

• Legalism – people should obey religious laws in

order to be good.
What is the Nature of Man?

•  Rational Being
•  Social Being

•  Moral Being

•  Property-owning being

•  Maker of things
 Application of Natural Law

•  Legal System: “natural rights”

•  Religious Beliefs

•  Basic Moral Laws

•  Framework for discussing positive law

•  Influence on governments (Universal Declaration of

Human Rights)
•  Ex. Fairness
SHOULD MAN BE GOOD?
WHY?
What is the good?

HAPPINESS
the living of a flourishing life; the fulfillment of our
distinctive nature, what we “by nature” do best
Should Man be good?

Yes…
…In order to lead a good or flourishing life
 Why should Man be good?

•  Immoral acts violate natural law. Hence, immoral

behavior is “unnatural” (“contrary to our function”).

•  Moral acts/virtuous behavior is “natural.”

•  Natural law is the set of truths about morality and

justice; they are rules that we must follow in order to
lead a good or flourishing life.
 Why should Man be good?
Natural Law Theory of Law

•  Legal systems function to secure justice.

•  Positive law has as its purpose the common good of

the community.

•  Any positive law which conflicts/is inconsistent with

either natural law or divine law is not really law at all.
Why should Man be good?
Purpose
All humans have a purpose

Reason
Helps man know how to act morally (Natural Laws);
reveals the ultimate ‘goods’ in life

Happiness and Eudemonia

By following these laws, it will lead to Eudemonia, the
reward for good actions
Conclusion
In the end, where does law come from?

The Theory of Natural Law maintains that certain

moral laws transcend time, culture, and government.
There are universal standards that apply to all
mankind throughout all time. These universal moral
standards are inherent in and discoverable by all of
us, and form the basis of a just society.
Sources:
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WAJ_Vol1_2010_Simona-Vieru---Aristotle-and-Aquinas.pdf
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