On Natural Law and Human Lives
I will be the first person to say that we need to have faith in our government. I solely believe that a country will crumble if we don't believe in our government, but I learned something in class today that infuriated me. All of you probably already know this, but since I have only recently come home from my Ireland cloud this year, I don't really know prior American news, especially if it happened anytime during the 21st century. When Katrina hit all of our governments, being Federal, State and Local, argued about jurisdiction. The bad thing was all this was going on while people died. PEOPLE WERE DYING, AND ALL OUR COUNTRY CARED ABOUT WAS JURISDICTION!! Where do we live? This is the country of the free and the brave! This is the country that people have died defending and others have died for loyalty to our government in wars that should have never been started. Something was also said about how some of the responsibility of the clean-up belonged to churches and volunteer community services. Well that gives me some relief, but what of the rest of the country? At least the country knows they can count on us (us being the church, well some churches), but as human beings we KNOW that we should help save people, even if it is in a narcissistic fashion. That is in our natural law (And if you don't know what that is look it up. It's an important concept. You can try Aquinas). Our Natural Law will tell us to help others and save others, but as Christians we know that we cannot actually "save" anyone, only God can do that and non-Christians will help but it will be self serving even in the "nicest" of hearts. But we can still help in the earthly realm. When a disaster hits we must be there for one another as a country and as human beings.
I sometimes wish I knew more about our country so I could actually talk about these types of things correctly, but I don't. I guess it's back to my cloud, or maybe I'll stay here a while and actually learn something.
Yours,
The Shepherd
I sometimes wish I knew more about our country so I could actually talk about these types of things correctly, but I don't. I guess it's back to my cloud, or maybe I'll stay here a while and actually learn something.
Yours,
The Shepherd
Comments
Ah, so many ironies...curious, that such a terrible disaster as Hurricane Katrina would occur in the one state in the U.S. that is based on natural law (rather than English common law). If anything, the whole Katrina fiasco was a wonderful example of why we should always look upon our elected leaders with contempt and jealousy. I happen to share your disgust with how it was handled (the jurisdiction mess, I mean), but that didn't stop people from stepping up and contributing to private charities. Corporations also played a big role in helping to prevent the city from sliding into any more anarchy than was already there. The more of that kind of activity there is, and the less government interference it involves, the better, methinks.
Drew
Thanks for your response! I didn't realize that about the corporations, but like I said I am very ill informed, but only for my lack of trying to figure out information. Also, I wasn't aware of the natural law in LA. I was actually talking of a spiritual law. But I will now be definitely looking into that. I'm in a government class right now, and that would be very beneficial. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. I am always up for learning!
Jessica
I was wondering if you would recognize me from my photograph...I have added your blog to my blogroll. I would like it very much if you would visit mine as well! :) I often deal with current events from a "political science" perspective that you might find interesting.
In any case, the difference between natural law and common law is simple: natural law is based upon knowledge of basic human inclinations (which always intend good ends, but rarely good means...that is the teaching of Aquinas), and then asks the question of how a given State - no matter its constitution - can best facilitate achieving the ends toward which human existence tends. For example, the desire for marriage and family is a natural inclination, i.e., it is not something we have to be taught. But such desires cannot be fully realized without private property. Hence, one of the duties of the State in natural-law theory is to guarantee such a right, and along with that right comes other guarantees, etc.
Common law, on the other hand, is based on tradition and custom, and often includes an explicitly religious element, which natural law does not always require. For example, a given society with a common religion might have a common notion of what "murder" or "theft" or "perjury" is, and the legislation of that society will reflect that common sentiment. When those laws are violated, the decisions rendered should also indicate how the law was violated and why that kind of violation merited the punishment meted out to the offender. That ruling then becomes part of the law, to be itself used as a further law in future cases of the pursuit of justice.
It should be clear, then, that common law can include natural law, but not vice versa. As a whole, what we have is most definitely a common-law style government, like the U.K. The problem with such a setup is that it is not "designed" to work within a multicultural framework in which there is no common notion of morality upon which to base the laws. Such a state tends to lead toward either balkanization or totalitarianism of either the majority or the minority. But in any case I hope the foregoing highlights some of the differences for you. I would be happy to recommend some good books on the subject if you are interested. :)
Drew
Now it's only a matter of how much detail you want, so here are some good books that will help you get started:
Natural Law
-Summa Theologiae (St. Thomas Aquinas)
-The Spirit of the Laws (Montesquieu)
-Two Treatises on Government (Locke)
-Political Speeches (Cicero...anything by Cicero counts)
-Politics (Aristotle)
-City of God (St. Augustine)
Common Law
-On Liberty (John Stuart Mill)
-The Constitution of Liberty (Friedrich Hayek)
-Liberalism in the Classical Tradition (Ludwig von Mises)
-Federalist Papers (James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, & John Jay)
-The Discourses (Niccolo Machiavelli)
I have personally read all of these books and can vouch for their usefulness in exploring the subject. I hope this list helps!
Drew