Natural Law and

Natural Rights
ETCI Chapter 6
Ethics and Contemporary Issues
Professor Douglas Olena
 We Hold These Truths…

• 89 Thomas Jefferson in 1776 wrote in the Declaration of

Independence, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal and that they are endowed by their
creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
• Locke “in his Second Treatise on Government had written that all
humans were of the same species, born with the same basic
capacities.”
• Both these texts assume a basic common human nature.
 Natural Law & Civil Law

• 89 In the Nuremberg trials many claimed to be following the law

of the land, or their superior’s orders.
• In reply the prosecutors appealed to a higher law, the natural law.
 Two Tenets of Natural Law

• 89 Two tenets of natural law theory:

• The basic moral law can be known by human reason.
• We know what it requires by looking to human nature.
 What is Natural Law?

• The natural moral law is not to be confused with the physical

laws of nature.
• The laws of nature are generalizations of natural science.
• They are descriptive generalizations of fact.
• They are the product of research into the natural world,
whether it be physics or psychology.
 What is Moral Law?

• 90 “Moral laws… are prescriptive laws.”

• “They tell us how we ought to behave.”
• These, are written into the laws of nature, especially the
nature of what it is to be human.
• What is it to function well as human beings and as members
of our species.
 What is Civil Law?

• 90 Civil law, like moral law is prescriptive.

• However, the moral law is more basic than any civil law which
generates it.
• The civil laws change over time with the various circumstances
calling it into being of a certain type.
• The moral law, however, is supposed to be universal and stable.
Historical Origins: Aristotle
 Aristotle

• 90 Aristotle is the first to develop a comprehensive system to

account for the natural law.
• “Plato’s philosophy stresses the reality of the general and
abstract, this reality being his famous forms or ideas that exist
apart from the things that imitate them.”
• “Aristotle was more interested in the individual and the concrete
manifestations of the forms.”
 Nature, Human Nature and
the Human Good

• 90 Aristotle concluded that there is an order in nature.

• Every living thing had a goal or telos toward which it aimed.
• an acorn becomes an oak
• a tadpole becomes a frog
 Nature, Human Nature and
the Human Good

• 90 “The good is that at which all things aim.”

• 91 “We are to look at the purpose or end or goal of some activity
or being to see what is its good.”
• The good of a shipbuilder is to build ships.
• The good of a squirrel is to be an effective, successful and
functioning squirrel.
• Human beings are thought to be natural beings with a specific
human nature.
 Nature, Human Nature and
the Human Good

• 91 Unlike squirrels and acorns, humans can choose to do what is

their good or act against it.
• To discover what the good is for a human being, one must first
discover what the function of a human being is.
• A being is happy to the extent that it is functioning well.
• The ultimate good for humans is happiness
• To know what happiness is we must know what the function of a
human being is.
 Nature, Human Nature and
the Human Good

• 91 There is much that humans have in common with animals,

but what is it that is unique to humans?
• The rational element
• “The good for humans, them should consist in their functioning
in a way consistent with and guided by this rational element.”
• Two functions of the Rational Element:
• To know
• To guide choice and action
 Nature, Human Nature and
the Human Good

• 91 For Aquinas, moral good consists in following the innate

tendencies of our nature.
• With respect to our senses,
• With respect to our reproduction,
• We ought to treat others as beings capable of understanding
and free choice.
• Whatever helps the pursuit of truth is good, whatever hinders
it is bad.
 Nature, Human Nature and
the Human Good

• 91 “We are social creatures by nature.

• Thus, the essence of natural law theory is that we ought to
further the inherent ends of human nature and not do what
frustrates human fulfillment or flourishing.”
 Evaluating
Natural Law Theory
• 91 Advantages:
• The objectivity of moral values,
• Notion of the good as human flourishing.
• Problems:
• We must be able to read nature accurately, but many have
read nature differently.
• “Can the way things are by nature provide the basis for
knowing how they ought to be?”
• Does evolutionary theory pose a problem to natural law
theory?
 Evaluating
Natural Law Theory

• 91 Advantages:
• The objectivity of moral values,
• There is a nature of man that corresponds to the values
derivable from nature.
• This nature of man is fixed though expressing differently
with every generation.
• We can and will approach the truth about our obligations
as people by refining our knowledge about human nature.
 Evaluating
Natural Law Theory

• 91 Advantages:
• Notion of the good as human flourishing.
• Whatever makes all people prosper is good.
• This requires liberty and justice, egalitarian fairness.
• This requires community or society, so a concept of human
nature requires a concept of humanity in general and its
relation to the polis.
 Evaluating
Natural Law Theory
• Problems:
• We must be able to read nature accurately, but many have
read nature differently.
• By who’s science or method do we read nature?
• Every examination of nature comes with different
observational goggles.
• We must read not only material nature, but human nature
as well.
• Though there is progress in material science, the progress
in psychology is more difficult.
 Evaluating
Natural Law Theory
• 91, 92 Problems:
• “Can the way things are by nature provide the basis for
knowing how they ought to be?”
• Is there a way of understanding psychological cause and
effect such that we can unproblematically guide the future
of the human race by some rule?
• Class: Give some psychological facts about mankind and
mankinďs nature.
• Is there any hope of a coherent picture?
• Skinner: Walden 2
 Evaluating
Natural Law Theory
• Problems:
• Does evolutionary theory pose a problem to natural law
theory?
• What are the assumptions underlying evolutionary theory?
• What is the moral result of these assumptions?
• Social Darwinism… Eugenics, (redux: Skinner)
• Conflict with religious ideas…
• Does natural law theory require God?
 Natural Rights Theory

• 93 Thomas Jefferson with Adams, Franklin, Livingston and

Sherman provide a good example of natural rights in the
Declaration of Independence.
• Some of the original language of the Declaration was adopted
from John Locke’s Essay Concerning the true original, extent,
and end of Civil Government.
• The Declaration grants rights based on the assumption of
equality based on being created beings.
• These rights are inherent in personhood, and may need legal
protection.
 Natural Rights Theory

• 93 We find natural rights language in the first- and second-

century Stoics whose moral principle was to follow nature.
• Hugo Grotius a Dutch jurist, held that moral law was
determined by right reason.
• The philosophers of the eighteenth century often refer to the
laws of nature when discussing natural rights.
• The moral law is built into nature.
• These rights are accorded to people just because they are people,
without respect to any other circumstance.
 Evaluating
Natural Rights Theory

• 94 Not everyone agrees what human nature requires or what

human natural rights are central.
• Some argue that economic rights are appropriate while others
argue that only the rights of liberty and non-interference are
just.
 Evaluating
Natural Rights Theory

• What must the theory of natural rights prove to justify itself?

• First it must demonstrate “why human beings are so valuable
that what is essential for their full function can be claimed as
a right.”
• Second, just what things are essential to the for the good
functioning of human nature?