Understanding Natural Law

Abstract

“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.