Chapter 7: Morality and Human Nature

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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?

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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