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Essay on Natural Law Theory of Ethics
Introduction
In English this term is frequently employed as equivalent to the laws of nature, meaning the order which governs the activities of the material universe. Among the Roman jurists natural law designated those instincts and emotions common to man and the lower animals, such as the instinct of self-preservation and love of offspring. Natural law theory is one of the most important theories in the philosophy of Classical Realism. It is also widely misunderstood by many who either have not taken the time to study it or have heard of it or dismissed it as a "medieval" relic.
Origin of Law Theory
The concept of natural law has taken several forms. The idea began with the ancient Greeks' conception of a universe governed in every particular by an eternal, immutable law and in their distinction between what is just by nature and just by convention (Philip, 2002). Stoicism provided the most complete classical formulation of natural law. The Stoics argued that the universe is governed by reason, or rational principle; they further argued that all humans have reason within them and can therefore know and obey its law (Jacques, William, 2000). Because human beings have the faculty of choice (a free will), they will not necessarily obey the law; if they act in accordance with reason, however, they will be "following nature."
Christian philosophers readily adapted Stoic natural law theory, identifying natural law with the law of God (Joseph, 1996). For Thomas Aquinas, natural law is that part of the eternal law of God ("the reason of divine wisdom") which is knowable by human beings by means of their powers of reason. Human, or positive, law is the application of natural law to particular social circumstances. Like the Stoics, Aquinas believed that a positive law that violates natural law is not true law..........
