ROLE OF SOCRATES IN NATURAL LAW PHILOSOPHY

ICFAI LAW SCHOOL

An assignment is submitted on dated 04/05/2021,under the course

curriculum of the degree of BBA LLB(HONS.)
(04/05/2021)

Name of the faculty Name of student

Dr. Rajeev Ranjan Jaya vats
Law faculty 18FLICDDN01049
Icfai law school BBA LLB (H) 3RD YEAR
Icfai university SECTION-A
Dehradun Icfai law school
Icfai university, Dehradun
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, praises and thanks to the God, the Almighty, for His showers of
blessings throughout my research work to complete the research successfully.

I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my research supervisor, Dr.
Rajeev Ranjan for giving me the opportunity to do research and providing
invaluable guidance throughout this research. His dynamism, vision, sincerity and
motivation have deeply inspired me. He has taught me the methodology to carry out
the research and to present the research works as clearly as possible. It was a great
privilege and honor to work and study under his guidance. I am extremely grateful
for what he has offered me.

I am extremely grateful to my parents for their love, prayers, caring and sacrifices
for educating and preparing me for my future. Finally, my thanks go to all the
people who have supported me to complete the research work directly or indirectly.

- JAYA VATS

RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY

The development of natural law has had a profound influence on the course of European
civilization. I have started my research with natural law as it was conceived by Socrates and
Plato. I then followed the major developments and changes that occurred to this original
design went through to the height of the Renaissance in the Sixteenth century. I relied
mostly on secondary sources for several reasons. First the translations of the original
materials are all well established. This includes translations of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas,
Ockham, Suarez, Luther, as well as others. Secondly, and more importantly, the emphasis of
my research was not to describe the secondary and tertiary intellectual work of the thinkers
after Plato. Rather I wish to show how the philosophical forces that Plato struggled against
during his lifetime reemerged later in two major philosophies peculiar to Europe and how
these essentially distorted his original design.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................

THE ORIGIN OF NATURAL LAW……………………………………………………….

SOCRATES..............................................................................................................................

CRITICISMS OF NATURAL LAW PHILOSOPHY ……………………………………….

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………….
 INTRODUCTION

The story of the course of natural law since its recognized beginning with Socrates and Plato
nearly twenty-five centuries ago is a story of the course of European and Mediterranean
civilization. From the starting point of Socrates and Plato the course of natural law changed
almost immediately. This occurred with Aristotle. He rejected Plato's concept of
Forms,which is the foundation of Plato's philosophy. From here the course splits and follows
several routes. I have tried to focus on the main ones -- those that have (seemingly) had the
largest historical effect on this issue. Still the task of following these courses was difficult.
What was of great help was the framework in which I set the issue.

I believe that the most enduring aspect of human existence is Thought. It is thought that
conceives and builds great edifices. It is ideas that weld peoples together and which create a
society. Thought propels civilization to either great heights or great chasms. It must be
understood that by the term thought I don't mean the daily flotsam and jetsam of mental
activity. And even though -- far too often -- it seems that people react instinctually instead of
intelligently, producing (also far too often) horrible results, we are, like it or not, rational
creatures. With this said, we can step into the idea that a group of people is bound together
by some degree of a unity of thought.

Natural law is a moral law that philosophers and theologians have taught is inherent in
human nature, commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong. According to
Natural law thinkers, an individual’s notion of what is wrong and what is right may differ
but there are certain laws that are valid at places and in all circumstances. Examples are
treating one’s neighbours fairly and honouring one’s parents. The commands of natural law
arise out of the nature of man and can be discovered by reason or are presented by man
conscience.

THE ORIGINS OF NATURAL LAW

The concept of natural law finds its beginning in Socrates and Plato. The actual term
"natural law" appears only a few times in Plato's dialogues. 1 Wild points out that often
especially in the history books of the last century, the Stoics were credited with formulating
the theory of natural law -- based primarily on philological considerations.2

For the Greek mind the universe held a rational order. 3 This is not to reject religion and its
role in Greek life, but there was an insistence by the Greek mind to discover harmony in the
universe. Religion and religious sentiment, though pervasive at various times, did not deter
the likes of men such as Pythagoras, who sought to bring religion and philosophy to a
greater unity, or Xenophones (who openly opposed religion) from seeking this rational
order.4
That nature has some rational order was not really contended by the Greek philosophers.
What that nature was, and whether there was purpose associated with it was another point
entirely. There is not space here to go into the variations of thought concerning nature. For
our purposes the division between materialism and realism can best be exhibited by briefly
examining Plato's definition of nature in its different functions.

PLATO'S DEFINITION OF THE TERM "NATURE"

What does Plato mean when he uses the term nature? This term, unlike the more narrowly
defined "natural law" or "law of nature" is used extensively by Plato. 5 For Plato nature refers
to the entire world order of mutually supporting forces and tendencies. Here nature does not
mean what it has come to mean in especially the past century and a half, i.e., a mechanism
devoid of purpose or meaning. Plato's definition of nature is multiple. For Plato the changing
entities of this world have structure and often Plato uses the term "nature" to refer to this
aspect of an entity. He is specifically making reference to Form or eidos (idea) of this

1 John Wild, Plato's Modem Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law (Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1971), p. 136.
2 Ibid., p. 135.
3 Sir Ernest Barker, Greek Political Theory (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1961), pp. 2-3.
4 J. Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1945), p. 80.
5 Wild, p. 150.
individual thing.6 Nature, in this sense, is imperfect and incomplete. But this does not imply
that it is static These incomplete Forms tend toward the completion of themselves. They are,
in other words, tendential.
This concept of tendency is for Plato and Socrates one of the central proofs of a rational
universe. It is important to understand their definition of the term rational universe. While it
was clearly recognized that much of the world was non-rational, i.e. there was no active,
participating rational intelligence in animals and plants, Man was looked upon as something
apart from this non-rational world by the existence of his mind. Yet all life has a nature to
fulfill. Such fulfillment, according to Plato is good.To be thwarted in the attempt to complete
this nature is evil.7

The Idea of Natural Law

The conversation is surprisingly relevant today. The American Founders, like Socrates, believed
that justice consisted of more than “might is right.” The U.S. system is built on, one could say, a
Socratic vision of justice: natural law.

Natural law (Latin: ius naturale, lex naturalis) is a moral theory which asserts that rights exist
apart from the state. They are “inherent by virtue,” bestowed by a transcendent power, and
cannot be justifiably abrogated. Natural law rests on the idea that objective truth exists and
humans can ascertain it.

SOCRATES

6 Ibid., p. 150.
7 For further examination of this point beyond what will follow here I would suggest to the reader an
examination of A.E. Taylor's book, Aristotle, specifically p. 52. Also Richard Patterson, Image and
Reality in Plato's Metaphysics, p. 165., Appendix 1. This deals with Plato's Phaedo 14-15. See also the
issue of the inferiority of sensible Forms as compared to the Form on p. 87.
Socrates said that like Natural Physical Law there is a Natural or Moral Law. Human beings
are moral because they have “Human Insight”, the inherent capacity to differentiate between
good and bad and consequently see the moral values in the good. This human insight is the
basis to judge the law. Socrates did not deny the authority of the Positive Law. He placed
Natural law as the necessary ingredient for security and stability of the country, which is one
of the principal needs of the age. His pupil Plato supported the same theory. But it is in
Aristotle that we find a proper and logical elaboration of the theory.

The name of Socrates occupies a prominent place among the Stoic philosophers of the
ancient time. He was a great admirer of truth and moral values. He argued that like natural
physical law, there is a natural moral law. It is because of the ‘human insight’ that a man has
the capacity to distinguish between good and bad is able to appreciate the moral values.
Thus according to Socrates, virtue is knowledge’ and whatever is not virtuous is sin’. To
him, justice may be of two kinds, namely,

(1) natural justice; and

(2) legal justice.

The rules of natural justice are uniformly applicable to all the places but the notion of legal
justice may differ from place to place depending upon the existing with time and place. The
reasonability of a particular law is judged by human insight and only those laws would be
deemed proper which are in accordance with the principles of law of nature and are
supported by human reasoning. Thus natural law is a specie of law which and times.
However, Socrates did not deny the authority of the positive law but he pleaded for the
necessity of natural law for security and stability of the community.

Socrates believed that as there is natural physical law there is also natural law. In his concept
of natural law man has his own insight which makes him know of the things whether they
are good or bad, it is this insight according to him by which a man is able to inculcate the
moral values in him, the only way to judge the basis of law according to Socrates is man’s
insight. Through his theory, Socrates wanted to ensure peace and stability in the region
which was one of the principle demands of that time.
CRITICISM OF NATURAL LAW PHILOSOPHY

1. Rejection of the teleological view of nature for a mechanistic, post-Darwinian view

2. Suppose that I do have a purpose set by God or nature. By what logic does it follow that I am
ethically required to act in accord with that purpose?
3. The notion that human beings have a function is a degrading view: is our moral status simply
to be a matter of our having functions or purposes in the way that hammers and other instruments
do?
4. It is always an open question what morally ought to be done given any statement of what is
naturally done or factually the case. To think otherwise is to commit the naturalistic fallacy.
5. Principles of natural law are often useless: Aquinas’ example of “Do good and avoid evil.”
6. Ought we to question the connection between law and morality?

CONCLUSION

This brief survey of the content of ‘Natural Law’ has varied from time to time. It has been used
to support almost any ideology, absolutism, individualism and has inspired revolutions and
bloodshed also. It has greatly influenced the positive law and has modified it. The law is an
instrument not only of social control but of social progress as well, it must have certain ends. A
study of law would not be complete unless it extends to this aspect also. The ‘Natural Law’
theories have essentially been the theories regarding the ends of law. The ‘Natural Law’
principles have been embodied in legal rules in various legal systems and have become their
golden principles.
From these considerations it follows that natural law is far from being a purely academic
speculation, just good enough for people with leisure to brood over; it is fundamental even in
practical life. It follows also that the concept of natural law has had a very strange destiny in
Greece. If we recall the sayings of Homer and Hesiod, Theogenis and Sophocles, Xenophon and
Plato, we shall remember that, in the minds of these writers, natural law is something divine and
universal; it is a gift of the gods, like justice and poetry; it is to be found everywhere in the
world, because it is based on reason, which is proper to man, it is immanent in human nature. For
Pythagoras and Heraclitus, the principles of justice, upon which natural law is based, are to be
found in equality and in insight, in the law of retaliation and in the law of reason; justice is
harmony and equilibrium, man is the center of the cosmos. For Plato, justice is a spirit, a habit of
life that animates man's action; the inner sense of justice, which is felt by the conscience, is
something much higher in spiritual truth and content than the law of the State; natural law is
eternal, like the gods who have given it to mankind. With Aristotle, natural law is one, divine,
universal with the Stoics, it is human, universal, as manifold as the individuals themselves.

Strange destiny indeed is that of the natural law, for it was first called divine and then, in the
course of centuries, became human. This destiny is quite as strange as that of Fire, which was
too, divine in its origin, gave birth to love and kept unity as long as it was in the hands of the
gods; placed in the hands of Prometheus, it became the source of the arts and of the inventions,
the very principle of division on earth. There is, however, a much more tragic and strange
destiny than that: it is the destiny of men in the world. The Greeks centered their interest on man
especially. Their concept of natural law was born of their study of man. It is one of their greatest
contributions to the world's culture and civilization. It is a new idea, which is still alive today;
and the Greeks had the genius of coining words for this new idea. Thanks to natural law, there is
something humane and personal in Greek law, there is a soul, a spirit in it. There is even too
much poetry in natural law not to be divine. The Greek saw it and expressed it, for they were
poets, they looked at the world in awe, like children. That is why everything they have invented
still looks so fresh; their literature and their philosophy seem to be less old than yesterday's
newspapers; one never tires of studying Greek, as one never tires of looking at the sun on the
Aegean sea. Natural law is, in fact, the expression of the divine law in man. As long as man
respects the divine in himself, he lives in peace, for the divine, which is measure and order, is
peace. Socrates used to smile, when looking at the Parthenon, for the Parthenon was for him the
symbol of order and harmony, of measure and proportion; it may also be regarded as the symbol
of natural law for the Greeks of old.