Natural Law Liberalism by Christopher Wolfe

Author:Christopher Wolfe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Political Ideologies, History & Theory, General, Natural Law, Conservatism & Liberalism, Political Science, Social History, Law, Liberalism, History
ISBN: 9780521842785
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2006-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Understanding Natural Law

“Natural law” is a term that has been used with even more varied and

incompatible meanings than the term “liberalism.” Moreover, persuading

people to examine it and take it seriously can be particularly difficult

because, in some of its classic forms, natural law is often considered to be

discredited by its historical associations with the defense of slavery and

religious persecution. In this volume, however, I am trying to argue for

a particular form of natural law that is not fairly subject to criticism for

supporting slavery or religious persecution.

In this chapter’s effort to describe natural law, I will begin with an historical overview of natural law, giving somewhat greater attention to the

natural law thought of Thomas Aquinas, whom I take to be the greatest

representative of the tradition, and then identify four different ways in

which the term can be used. I will then describe a new form of Thomistic

natural law theory developed in recent years, and offer some observations

on it, and go on to describe a core of natural law teaching on which I think

various contemporary schools of natural law can agree. The last part of

the chapter will be an examination of some of the resources in natural

law theory for an appreciation of the importance of the central liberal

principle of liberty.

a brief history of natural law

When Aquinas elaborated a natural law theory, he was not beginning

from scratch or operating in a vacuum. He was the heir to centuries of

reflection on nature and morality, which came to him through various

strands of thought. Indeed, it may be said that classic (Thomistic) natural

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Understanding Natural Law

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law theory is part of a “family” of doctrines or concepts or ethical and

political theories that share certain fundamental features. Among the most

important are the natural right tradition of Plato and Aristotle,1 the Stoic tradition (e.g., as described in certain works of Cicero2), Roman law,3

and Augustine.4 Aquinas drew on all these sources in forming his natural law teaching.

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