Chapter 2 (2.5 and 2.6) PAGES 22-25

Chapter 2
[2.5 and 2.6]

PAGES 22-25
2.5 THE REVIVAL OF NATURAL THEORY
Factors contributed to the reawakening of natural theory in 20th century.
1. Recognition of human rights and their declaration.

(Charter of UN, the Universal declaration on Human Rights, the European
Convention of Human Rights, and the Declaration of Delhi on Rule of Laws of
1959)
*Natural law is conceived of not as a “higher law” in the constitutional sense of

invalidating ordinary law.
2. Nuremberg Trials
Established that all of humanity would be guarded by an international legal
shield and that anyone would be held criminal responsible and punished for
crime against humanity.
3. Neo-Kantianism of Rudolf Stammler and Giorgio Del Vecchio

4. Neo- Thomism, known as English-speaking lawyers.
5. Development of constitutional safeguards for human or civil rights.
6. Natural theory of Lon Fuller.
2.6 JOHN FINNES
Finnes’s Natural Law and Natural Rights constitutes a major restatement

of classical natural law theory and giving new ground in its application of the
methodology of analytical jurisprudence. His book has the purpose of to
continue the project begun by Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas, in which to consider
and evaluate human choices, actions, institutions, and well-being.
The point of the theory in Finnis’s words:
-A theory of natural law need not be undertaken primarily for the purpose of…
providing a justified conceptual framework for descriptive social science. It may be
undertaken, as this book is, primarily to assist the practical reflections of those
Finnes’s Natural Law and Natural Rights rejects Hume’s conception of
practical reason which holds that every reason for action is merely ancillary
(supplementary) to our desire to attain a certain objective. Reason merely informs
us how best achieve our desires; it cannot tell us what we ought to desire.
INSTEAD, Finnes adopts the Aristotelian point and an attempt to answer the,
“what we constitutes a worthwhile, valuable, desirable life?” with the Seven
basic forms of good.
FINNIS SEVEN BASIC FORMS OF GOOD, Based On the Aristotelian Point.

1. Life. The drive for self-preservation we all have, it includes health and the
procreation of children.
2. Knowledge: It is goof itself to be well-informed rather than ignorant or
muddled (lost)
3. Play: Recreation, enjoyment, fun.
4. Aesthetic experience: An appreciation of beauty in art or nature.
5. Sociability/ friendship: Acting in the interests of one’s friends.
6. Practical reasonableness: Employing one’s intelligence to solve problems
of deciding what to do, how to live, and shaping one’s character.
7. Religion: Our concern about an order of things that transcends our
individual interests.
On the later writings of Finnis he conceded that his 3rd basic good should have
been: skillful performance in work or play.
Nine Basic Requirements of Practical Reasonableness

1. The good of practical reasonableness structures the pursuits of goods. It
shapes one’s participation in the other basic goods, by guiding one’s
selection of projects, one’s commitments, and what one does in order to
carry them out.
2. A coherent plan of life. One ought to have a harmonious set of purposes as
effective commitments.
3. No arbitrary preference among values. One ought not to omit or
unreasonably exclude or exaggerate any of the basic human values.
4. No arbitrary preference among persons. One should maintain impartiality
in regard to others and their interests.
5. Detachment and commitment. One should be both open-minded and
committed to one’s projects.
6. The (limited) relevance of the consequences: efficiency within reason. One
must not squander opportunities through inefficiency; actions should be
reasonably efficient.
7. Respect for every basic value in every act. One should avoid acts that
achieve nothing but damage or impede one or more of the basic forms of
human good.
8. The requirements of the common good. One should act to advance the
interests of one’s community.
9. Following one’s conscience. One should not do what one feels should be
done.
‘What is really good for human person”- For Finnes, before we can pursue
human goods we require a community. This explains his view that unjust law
are not simply nullities, but- because they militate against the common good-
loose their direct moral authority to bind.
Principle of justice for Finnes; Are no more than the implications of general
requirements that one ought to foster the common good in one’s community.
The basic goods and methodological requirements are clear enough to prevent
most forms of injustice, they give rise to several absolute obligations with
correlative absolute natural rights. According to Finnes, Aquinas make it clear
that each of us ‘by experiencing one’s nature, so to speak, from the inside’ grasps
‘by simple act of non-inferential understanding that the object of the inclination
which one experiences is an in instance of a general form of good, for one self.
FOR AQUINAS, to discover what is morally right is to ask, not what is in
accordance with human nature, but what is reasonable.
Finnis is a social theorist who wants to use law to improve society. His arguments for
law thus, not surprisingly, centre on its instrumental value. ThThe focal meaning of law
concentrates on what it achieves, not what it is. As a result of this orientation we are
leftft with the suspicion that Finnis gives us no substantial reason why social ordering
through law is the most appropriate way of organising political life, that it has, in other
words, the greatest moral value.
xxx

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Chapter 2 (2.5 and 2.6) PAGES 22-25

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Chapter 2

[2.5 and 2.6]

2.5 THE REVIVAL OF NATURAL THEORY

Factors contributed to the reawakening of natural theory in 20th century.

1. Recognition of human rights and their declaration.

*Natural law is conceived of not as a “higher law” in the constitutional sense of

3. Neo-Kantianism of Rudolf Stammler and Giorgio Del Vecchio

2.6 JOHN FINNES

Finnes’s Natural Law and Natural Rights constitutes a major restatement

The point of the theory in Finnis’s words:

FINNIS SEVEN BASIC FORMS OF GOOD, Based On the Aristotelian Point.

Nine Basic Requirements of Practical Reasonableness

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