There are two kinds of natural law, the kind that cannot be broken (with the possible exception of God), and the kind that can be broken, and therefore addresses the free will. The second kind of natural law is based on inferences from the type of creature man is, to those rules which fulfill his nature. According to Aristotle, the salient facts are that man is a rational, discursive animal, and that he is political, that is, lives in communities and creates institutions to further communal ends. Thus, he fulfills himself through the development of his rational faculties, including the regulation of his passions and the inquiry into the causes of things; and he also fulfills himself by playing a constructive role in the community to which he belongs, participating in its institutions, pitching in when there are problems, and earning the approbation of his fellow man through the probity with which he conducts his affairs.
The natural law is the cornerstone of philosophically derived morality, and even if Aristotle did not lay it all out definitively, he provides a good beginning. Perhaps you should acquaint yourself with the Nicomachean Ethics....... |
