Natural law
Updated 2026-08-11
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Natural law is the tradition holding that a body of justice exists independently of the positive law enacted by a political authority, discoverable by reason from human nature and the order of the world. It runs from Aristotle and Cicero, who called true law right reason in agreement with nature, through Aquinas, who described natural law as the rational creature's participation in eternal law, to Grotius and Locke, and in the twentieth century to Lon Fuller's argument in The Morality of Law (1964) that law has an inner morality it must satisfy. The key qualification is that natural law claims vary widely in content, and the same framework has been used to defend opposed conclusions.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Validity test: Ask whether a rule draws its authority only from enactment or also from moral merit. - Reason route: Justify a moral claim by reasoning from human nature rather than preference or decree. - Symmetry check: Apply the same standard to the rules you favour before using it on opponents.
Anchor fast decisions
If a law's force came only from the legislator's will, any content could qualify as law, including plainly unjust rules. Introducing a standard above positive law separates the question of what is law from the question of what deserves obedience, which supplies a non-arbitrary basis for resisting unjust rules.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/自然法verified
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