Natural Right and History (Walgreen Foundation Lectures) by Leo Strauss

Author:Leo Strauss [Strauss, Leo]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2013-12-26T18:30:00+00:00

B. LOCKE

At first glance Locke seems to reject altogether Hobbes’s notion of natural law and to follow the traditional teaching. He certainly speaks of man’s natural rights as if they were derivative from the law of nature, and he accordingly speaks of the law of nature as if it were a law in the strict sense of the term. The law of nature imposes perfect duties on man as man, regardless of whether he lives in the state of nature or in civil society. “The law of nature stands as an eternal rule to all men,” for it is “plain and intelligible to all rational creatures.” It is identical with “the law of reason.” It is “knowable by the light of nature; that is, without the help of positive revelation.” Locke considers it entirely possible for the law of nature or the moral law to be raised to the rank of a demonstrative science. That science would make out “from self-evident propositions, by necessary consequences . . . the measures of right and wrong.” Man would thus become able to elaborate “a body of ethics, proved to be the law of nature, from principles of reason, and teaching all the duties of life,” or “the entire body of the ‘law of nature,’” or “complete morality,” or a “code” which gives us the law of nature “entire.” That code would contain, among other things, the natural penal law.46 Yet Locke never made a serious effort to elaborate that code. His failure to embark on this great enterprise was due to the problem posed by theology.47

The law of nature is a declaration of the will of God. It is “the voice of God” in man. It can therefore be called the “law of God” or “divine law” or even the “eternal law”; it is “the highest law.” It is the law of God not only in fact. It must be known to be the law of God in order to be law. Without such knowledge man cannot act morally. For “the true ground of morality . . . can only be the will and law of a God.” The law of nature can be demonstrated because the existence and the attributes of God can be demonstrated. This divine law is promulgated, not only in or by reason, but by revelation as well. In fact, it first became known to man in its entirety by revelation, but reason confirms this divine law thus revealed. This does not mean that God did not reveal to man some laws which are purely positive: the distinction between the law of reason, which obliges man as man, and the law revealed in the gospel, which obliges Christians, is preserved by Locke.48

One may wonder whether what Locke says about the relation between the law of nature and the revealed law is free from difficulties. However this may be, his teaching is exposed to a more fundamental and more obvious difficulty, to a difficulty which seems to endanger the very notion of a law of nature.

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