Unleashing Social Justice through EU Public Procurement by Antoinette Calleja

Author:Antoinette Calleja
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

5.4 Freedom for human flourishing as conceived through natural law theory

When conceptualising poverty it seems that the grey areas encountered by Sen can find further illumination and support if we refer to the theory of natural law. There does not appear to be any discontinuity between Sen’s conception of capabilities and natural law theory. For in effect, capabilities to function seek to bring about the full realisation of one’s humanity wherein the dignity of the human person is accorded full respect. The flourishing of the human being turns out to be the common denominator in both Sen’s work and in natural law theory. But Sen apparently found difficulty in identifying a set of capabilities and functionings that might reflect fundamental values and meanings to life. Natural law theory, however, presents a logic that encompasses principles that elucidate the fundamental premise for human flourishing. More specifically, the principles of natural law include:

• a set of basic practical principles that indicate the basic forms of human flourishing as goods to be pursued and realised;

• a set of basic methodological requirements of practical reasonableness (one of the goods), distinguishing sound from unsound practical thinking – i.e. between acts that are reasonable, all things considered, and acts that are unreasonable, all things considered. These distinguish ways that are morally right or morally wrong;

• a set of general moral standards (Finnis 2011).

All of this is in sync with Sen’s capability set. There is therefore much significance and much potential when a deep-seated commitment underlying any public policy is guided by a vision of human flourishing.

5.4.1 Morality in natural law theory

The notion of morality appears to conjure up various meanings. The term ‘morality’ is derived from the Latin mos/moris, which for the Romans referred to customs. However, the term appears to have acquired various conceptual meanings. For instance, every religion is based on certain moral beliefs. In the Hindu morality, dharma and karma are the underlying principles of nearly all conceptions of morality and ethics.13 If we consider the ‘morality’ of marriage from the Roman Catholic perspective, the strict monogamy of a lifelong union (‘until death do us part’) comes to the fore. On the other hand, according to generic Christian morality, the marriage of one man and one woman can be dissolved at any time through divorce (i.e. there is a concept of loose monogamy). Such morality is now also extending marriage to include unions of the same sex. And according to Islamic morality, it is morally correct for a man to marry and have, simultaneously, more than one wife (polygamy). Thus, ‘morality’ when conceived through the paradigm of a particular religious belief, provides a clear and comprehensive body of rules. However, the existence of such diverse views about the same thing (for example, marriage) leaves unsolved the pertinent question as to which moral principles are valid.

In view of such conflicting views, when it comes to natural law theory, instead of the term ‘morality’ Finnis advocates the term ‘practical reasonableness’. He argues that this term

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