Проблема морального содержания права в концепции Дж. Финниса

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
V. Yu. Perov ◽  
A. D. Sevastianova

The law and morality the interrelation issue has been the subject for many discussions, recent works in the philosophy field and law ethics of renowned authors as H. Hart, L. Fuller and J. Finnis, who contributed significantly to the topic. The key question about the moral content of law is examined within the polemics between theorists of legal positivism and natural law legal theorists. This article touches upon this issue by the example of the concept of John Finnis, one of the most brilliant contemporary law philosophers, his neo-naturalistic concept of natural law includes some ideas of modern positivism. J. Finnis claims natural law appears as a set of principles of practical reasonableness for the ordering of human life and the human community. Law acts as a method to ensure “the common good” of the community and is based on seven self-evident, as he believes the basic human goods necessary for the human flourishing. The requirements of practical reasonableness compose the content of natural law, contain recommendations on how to carry out these self-evident goods. For Finnis, the aim of law is to provide conditions, according to the requirements of practical reasonableness, in which these seven goods can be realized. It is outlined that J. Finnis regards law as a social institute which purpose is to regulate human affairs, and thus to promote the creation of a community where everyone could realize the seven fundamental goods for humankind.

Author(s):  
Mary L. Hirschfeld

There are two ways to answer the question, What can Catholic social thought learn from the social sciences about the common good? A more modern form of Catholic social thought, which primarily thinks of the common good in terms of the equitable distribution of goods like health, education, and opportunity, could benefit from the extensive literature in public policy, economics, and political science, which study the role of institutions and policies in generating desirable social outcomes. A second approach, rooted in pre-Machiavellian Catholic thought, would expand on this modern notion to include concerns about the way the culture shapes our understanding of what genuine human flourishing entails. On that account, the social sciences offer a valuable description of human life; but because they underestimate how human behavior is shaped by institutions, policies, and the discourse of social science itself, their insights need to be treated with caution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-303
Author(s):  
Daniel Mark ◽  

Some critics question new natural law theorists’ conception of the common good of the political community, namely, their interpretation of St. Thomas Aquinas and the conclusion that the political common good is primarily instrumental rather than intrinsic and transcendent. Contrary to these objections, the common good of the political community is primarily instrumental. It aims chiefly at securing the conditions for human flourishing. Its unique ability to use the law to bring about justice and peace and promote virtue in individuals may make the common good of the political community critically important. Nevertheless, it is still not an intrinsic aspect of human flourishing. Unlike the family or a religious group, membership in a political community is not an end in itself.


Author(s):  
Anton Didikin

The paper interprets the arguments of Thomas Aquinas on natural law as a way to achieve the common good, which had a significant impact on John Finnis’ natural law theory. The author reveals the conceptual foundations of J. Finnis’ understanding the morally justified actions of people in the community aimed at the obtaining of basic benefits, and the debatable issues of his theory in modern philosophical and legal research. The author arrives to the conclusion that the reinterpretation of J. Finnis analysis of the grounds for ethically significant actions leads him to formulate an instrumental approach to natural law as a rational way to implement a decent life.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-123
Author(s):  
Alter I Wowor

Humans are essentially human politics (zoon politikon), so that all the dynamics of human life must always be related to politics, both as a political subject and as an object driven by politics itself. It can be clearly stated that the dynamics of human life in a country must be in circulation of the subject and object at once. Ideally, whether it is entrusted as a political leader or as a society controlled by politics itself, both are political subjects. That is, those who are entrusted with directing and regulating state politics are clearly a subject that always deals with politics in a concrete way, but the general public is also a subject, meaning that all aspects of life and community activities influence the political world both directly and indirectly, or with in other words it can be said that every activity of the community both in the world of education, religion, social, law, etc. is a political responsibility to organize, control, and direct all aspects of life for the common good, so that briefly it can be said that society is the determinant politics itself and as a function of political control, both directly and indirectly. AbstrakManusia pada hakikatnya adalah manusia politik (zoon politikon), sehingga seluruh dinamika kehidupan manusia pasti selalu berkenaan dengan politik, baik sebagai subjek yang berpolitik maupun sebagai objek yang digerakan oleh politik itu sendiri. Dengan jelas dapat dikatakan bahwa dinamika kehidupan manusia dalam suatu negara pasti berada dalam sirkulasi subjek dan objek sekaligus. Idealnya, baik yang dipercayakan sebagai pemimpin politik maupun sebagai masyarakat yang dikendalikan oleh politik itu sendiri, keduanya adalah subjek (pelaku) politik. Artinya, mereka yang dipercayakan mengarahkan dan mengatur politik negara jelas adalah subjek yang selalu bergelut dengan politik secara konkret , akan tetapi masyarakat umum juga adalah subjek, artinya segala aspek kehidupan dan aktivitas masyarakat membawa pengaruh bagi dunia politik baik  secara langsung maupun tidak langsung, atau dengan kata lain dapat dikatakan bahwa setiap aktivitas masyarakat baik dalam dunia pendidikan, agama, sosial, hukum, dan lain sebagainya menjadi tanggung jawab politik untuk menata, mengendalikan, dan mengarahkan semua aspek kehidupan tersebut demi kebaikan bersama, sehingga dengan singkat dapat dikatakan bahwa masyarakat adalah penentu politik itu sendiri dan sebagai fungsi kontrol politik, baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung.


2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-31
Author(s):  
Rochus-Antonin (Roman) Gruijters

This article argues that when globalization is accompanied by such problems as religious intolerance, social injustice, poverty, disrespect for the human dignity and oppression, Catholics should address these challenges on a social and an academic level. The Catholic social tradition, as the single bearer of reflection on the meaning of the common good, envisions the idea of this common good in particularly useful ways by linking it to concepts of solidarity and justice. Furthermore, the Catholic Social Doctrine offers a vision of humanity which rejects intolerance and violence and proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person should be the foundation of a moral vision for society. In short, this article will expand how – from a Catholic intellectual and moral perspective on a globalized world – the concept of bonum commune can address contemporary social, cultural and religious problems.


2020 ◽  
pp. 167-200
Author(s):  
Michael Pakaluk

A theory may properly be called a theory of natural law, if either it functions as such a theory is expected to function; or it has the expected content; or it is a plausible interpretation of a theory generally acknowledged to be in the tradition of natural law. It functions as such a theory if it supports appeals to natural law intended to ‘contextualize’ human law. It has the expected content, if it adverts to providential, natural teleology as the basis for a law given to us prior to convention. It would clearly be located in the tradition, and rightly accounted as such a theory, if it were a plausible interpretation of Aquinas’ Treatise on Law, which is the locus classicus for the philosophical treatment of natural law. But the ‘New Natural Law,’ first expounded in Natural Law and Natural Rights (NLNR) of John Finnis, meets none of these criteria. NLNR seems best construed, then, as a contribution to the «law and morality » debate, not a theory of natural law. It gives merely another ‘method of ethics’ along with the many others put forward in the 20th c. If so, the philosophical work needed for a persuasive, contemporary revival of natural law still remains to be done.


2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Kraynak

Abstract“Social justice” is a powerful idea today, but its origins and meaning are unclear. One of the first to use the term was Antonio Rosmini, author of The Constitution under Social Justice (1848) and other works of moral philosophy. I argue that Rosmini arrived at his idea of social justice by developing Thomistic natural law theory into a novel view of the common good that balances two principles: (1) the equal rights and dignity of persons as ends-in-themselves, a version of “personalism” influenced by Kant and Christianity; and (2) unequal rewards for those who contribute most to society, a version of Aristotelian “proportionalism” based on the social nature of man. I conclude by comparing Rosmini's idea of social justice to John Rawls's “theory of justice” and Catholic social teaching.


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