From Human Dignity to Natural Law : An Introduction Paperback / softback
by Richard Berquist
Paperback / softback
Description
From Human Dignity to Natural Law shows how the whole of the natural law, as understood in the Aristotelian Thomistic tradition, is contained implicitly in human dignity.
Human dignity means existing for one’s own good (the common good as well as one’s individual good), and not as a mere means to an alien good.
But what is the true human good? This question is answered with a careful analysis of Aristotle’s definiÂtion of happiness.
The natural law can then be understood as the preÂcepts that guide us in achieving happiness.
To show that human dignity is a reality in the nature of things and not a mere human invention, it is necessary to show that human beÂings exist by nature for the achievement of the properly human good in which happiness is found.
This implies finality in nature. Since contemÂporary natural science does not recognize final causality, the book exÂplains why living things, as least, must exist for a purpose and why the scientific method, as currently understood, is not able to deal with this question.
These reflections will also enable us to respond to a common criticism of natural law theory: that it attempts to derive statements of what ought to be from statements about what is.
After defining the natural law and relating it to human or positive law, Richard Berquist considers Aquinas’s formulation of the first prinÂciple of the natural law.
He then discusses the commandments to love God above all things and to love one’s neighbor as oneself as the first precepts of the natural law.
Subsequent chapters are devoted to clarÂifying and defending natural law precepts concerned with the life isÂsues, with sexual morality and marriage, and with fundamental natural rights.
From Human Dignity to Natural Law concludes with a discussion of alternatives to the natural law.
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:264 pages
- Publisher:The Catholic University of America Press
- Publication Date:30/11/2019
- Category:
- ISBN:9780813232423
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:264 pages
- Publisher:The Catholic University of America Press
- Publication Date:30/11/2019
- Category:
- ISBN:9780813232423