Chapter 7: Morality and Human Nature

Natural Law Theory
◦ Not the laws of nature
◦ Moral laws – prescriptive in that they tell
us how we ought to behave
◦ Civil laws are likewise prescriptive

Historical Origins: Aristotle
◦ An observer of Nature
◦ His teleological view provides a
conclusion about human good
Chapter 7: continued

Evaluating Natural Law Theory
◦ Determination of actions is a result of
seeing moral law in human nature
◦ Can the way things are by nature provide
a basis for knowing how they ought to be?
◦ Chance, direction, and the purpose of life
Chapter 7 continued
Natural Rights –
- for example - life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness
• The long tradition of natural rights in
Western philosophy
 Evaluating Natural Rights Theory

◦ Differing opinions on what the rights are
◦ Justifying the natural rights
◦ Other notions of human rights
Chapter 7: continued

Reading: On Natural Law
◦ Article 2
 Self-evident rights
 Good and evil have contrasting ends
◦ Article 3
 All virtuous acts pertain to the natural law
◦ Article 4
 Is there one natural law that fits all?
Chapter 7: continued
◦ Question 95 Article 2
 What humans gain from natural law
◦ Article 3
 The end of human law is the well being of
humans
Chapter 7: continued

Reading: Second Treatise of Civil
Government
◦ To understand political power and its fit
with the power of Nature
◦ The execution of the law of Nature is put
in all men’s hands to refrain from invading
others’ rights
◦ A state of Liberty but not license of
Liberty
◦ The power of the magistrate
Chapter 7: continued

Reading: Existentialism is a humanism
◦ Man is nothing else but what he makes of
himself
◦ The meanings of subjectivism
◦ The meaning of anguish
◦ The existence of God in the mind of an
existentialist