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25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 2. The Law / c. Natural law

[laws arising from the natural state of mankind]

22 ideas
Natural justice is the same everywhere, and does not (unlike legal justice) depend on acceptance [Aristotle]
Justice, the law, and right reason are natural and not conventional [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Stoics originated the concept of natural law, as agreed correct reasoning [Stoic school, by Annas]
Tyrannical laws are irrational, and so not really laws [Aquinas]
Right and wrong actions pertain to natural law, as perceived by practical reason [Aquinas]
Natural law is a rational creature's participation in eternal law [Aquinas]
Human laws must accord with the general laws of Nature [Hooker,R]
A natural right of self-preservation is balanced by a natural law to avoid unnecessary harm [Grotius, by Tuck]
Grotius and Pufendorf based natural law on real (rather than idealised) humanity [Grotius, by Ford,JD]
We should obey the laws of nature, provided other people are also obeying them [Hobbes, by Wolff,J]
Obligation to obey all positive laws is older than all laws [Cudworth]
Natural law is immutable truth giving moral truths and duties independent of society [Cumberland]
The order of nature does not prohibit anything, and allows whatever appetite produces [Spinoza]
It is only by a law of Nature that we can justify punishing foreigners [Locke]
Natural law theory is found in Aquinas, in Leibniz, and at the Nuremberg trials [Leibniz, by Jolley]
Prior to positive laws there is natural equity, of obedience, gratitude, dependence and merit [Montesquieu]
Sensation gives animals natural laws, but knowledge can make them break them [Montesquieu]
Writers just propose natural law as the likely useful agreements among people [Rousseau]
Natural justice, without sanctions, benefits the wicked, who exploit it [Rousseau]
Kant completed Grotius's project of a non-religious basis for natural law [Scruton on Kant]
Natural law theorists fear that without morality, law could be based on efficiency [Zimmermann,J]
Instead of against natural law, we might assess unjust laws against the values of the culture [Tuckness/Wolf]