| Natural Law: in ethical philosophy, theology, law, and social
theory, a set of principles, based on what are assumed to be the permanent
characteristics of human nature, that can serve as a standard for evaluating
conduct and civil laws. It is considered fundamentally unchanging and universally
applicable. Because of the ambiguity of the word nature, the meaning of natural
varies. Thus, natural law may be considered an ideal to which humanity aspires
or a general fact, the way human beings usually act. Natural law is contrasted
with positive law, the enactments of civil society.
"Natural Law," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. |
| Plato | (idealism) human law should reflect universal truths, law should imitate nature (which is inherently good) |
| Aristotle | (rationalism) through reason, humans should seek to discover the ideals which should then guide their actions |
| Cicero | human law should be based on the "reason of intelligent man" - but this law must never be in conflict with the laws of nature. |
| St. Thomas Aquinas | (eternal law, natural law, and human law) eternal law was divine, natural law "imprinted" eternal law on humans, and "human law" trained people to follow natural law. |
| Idealism: a theory of reality and of knowledge that attributes
to the mind a key role in the constitution of the world as it is experienced.
Different forms and applications of idealism are discernible in the history
of philosophy. In its most radical and commonly rejected form it is equivalent
to solipsism, the view that all reality is nothing but the activity of one's
own mind and that nothing really exists but oneself. The idealist, however,
usually gives full recognition to the external, or natural, world, avoiding
any claim that it can be reduced to the mere process of thinking. The mind,
on the other hand, is active and indeed is able to produce and sustain modes
of being that would not otherwise exist, such as law, religion, art, and
mathematics. Furthermore, the way that natural objects exist in human experience
is to some extent affected by the activity of the mind, and attention to
this influence is essential if inquiries concerning the world are to be
scientific.
"Idealism," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. |
| Rationalism: (Latin ratio, "reason") in philosophy, a system
of thought that emphasizes the role of reason in obtaining knowledge, in
contrast to empiricism, which emphasizes the role of experience, especially
sense perception. Rationalism has appeared in some form in nearly every stage
of Western philosophy, but it is primarily identified with the tradition
stemming from the 17th-century French philosopher and scientist Rene Descartes.
Descartes believed that geometry represented the ideal for all sciences and
philosophy. He held that by means of reason alone, certain universal,
self-evident truths could be discovered, from which the remaining content
of philosophy and the sciences could be deductively derived. He assumed that
these self-evident truths were innate, not derived from sense experience.
This type of rationalism was developed by other European philosophers, such
as the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza and the German philosopher and
mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. It was opposed, however, by British
philosophers of the empiricist tradition, such as John Locke, who believed
that all ideas are derived from the senses.
Epistemological rationalism has been applied to other fields of philosophical inquiry. Rationalism in ethics is the claim that certain primary moral ideas are innate in humankind and that such first moral principles are self-evident to the rational faculty. Rationalism in the philosophy of religion is the claim that the fundamental principles of religion are innate or self-evident and that revelation is not necessary (see DEISM). Since the end of the 1800s, however, rationalism has played chiefly an antireligious role in theology. "Rationalism," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. |
| Positive Law: the body of legal theory which views law as the
product of human thought and will.
|
| Thomas Hobbes | law must be made by man to protect man from his own natural brutality, law must maintain order and strength in a society |
| John Austin | (supporter of Utilitarianism) the purpose of law and government is the greatest advancement of human happiness |
| Jeremy Benthem | (founder of Utilitarianism) the purpose of law and government is to provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people |
| H.L.A. Hart | law as a system of coercive orders; Primary Rules, Secondary Rules (rules of recognition, change, and adjudication) |
| Utilitarianism: (Latin utilis, "useful"), in ethics, the
doctrine that what is useful is good, and consequently, that the ethical
value of conduct is determined by the utility of its results. The term
utilitarianism is more specifically applied to the proposition that the supreme
objective of moral action is the achievement of the greatest happiness for
the greatest number. This objective is also considered the aim of all legislation
and is the ultimate criterion of all social institutions. The utilitarian
theory of ethics is generally opposed to ethical doctrines in which some
inner sense or faculty, often called the conscience, is made the absolute
arbiter of right and wrong. Utilitarianism is likewise at variance with the
view that moral distinctions depend on the will of God and that the pleasure
given by an act to the individual alone who performs it is the decisive test
of good and evil.
"Utilitarianism," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. |