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Summary Notes on Finnis' New Natural Law
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In-depth notes for a topic for which there is currently no textbook - detailed and sophisticated with evaluation points needed for AO2
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(D) John Finnis’ development of Natural Law- He is a professor of Law at Oxford
- He wrote the book Natural Law, Natural Rights to show why law has authority and
should be recognized and followed by all, basing it on Natural Law
- Finnis approaches NL in a secular way, without the need for God
- Finnis argues that there are certain basic goods that are self-evident
- Finnis rejects Aquinas' primary precepts, instead arguing that to flourish humans need
seven basic, self-evident, universal goods, which apply equally to everyone at all times
- 2 main differences from the classical NL:
1. Finnis rejects Aristotle’s idea of a telos – no goal, except the one we give to ourselves
2. Finnis removes Aquinas’ emphasis on NL as coming from God as creator structuring
universe in a particular way - no emphasis on physical or biological functions
The 7 basic goods
1. Life 4. Aesthetic appreciation
7. Religion
2. Knowledge 5. Friendship, sociability
3. Play 6. Practical reasonableness
- The basic goods serve as an explanation of why we do things – any worthwhile activity is
worth doing as it participates in one or more basic goods
- The basic goods exist because our human nature is the way it is – we do not achieve
them, we participate in them
- They are universal, timeless and absolute – they are true of anybody at any time (good
basis for ethics)
- They explain why we do things – might solve the is-ought problem; how knowledge of
the present world does not necessarily lead to knowledge of how the world ought to be
- The self-evident goods could be denied, or disrespected, but to do so, would be to deny
what is real, and what makes sense in our lives
- The basic goods exist independently of human thought and so we can put them in
'reality' in the same what that maths exists in reality
-The basic goods are evident from practical reasoning rather than theoretical reasoning
- The basic goods are self-evident truths: they cannot be derived from God's law, logic, or
the inclinations of the human brain - they just obviously exist
- Acting on these self-evident goods is a matter of practical reason
- Finnis calls them 'basic goods' because they are self-evident basic needs of all human
beings
Distinction between theoretical and practical reason
- Theoretical reason describes what is true, whereas practical reason described how to
act
- Theoretical reason has many principles that cannot be proved, such as:
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