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Single Idea 19916
[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 2. The Law / c. Natural law
]
Full Idea
The order of nature, under which all human beings are born and for the most part live, prohibits nothing but what no one desires or no one can do; it does not prohibit strife or hatred or anger or anything at all that appetite foments.
Gist of Idea
The order of nature does not prohibit anything, and allows whatever appetite produces
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670], 16.04)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Theological-Political Treatise', ed/tr. Israel,Jonathan [CUP 2007], p.197
A Reaction
This is as vigorous a rejection of natural law as I have met with. It is hard to see on what grounds anyone could disagree, other than hopeful sentiment.
Related Idea
Idea 19928
No one, in giving up their power and right, ceases to be a human being [Spinoza]
The
22 ideas
with the same theme
[laws arising from the natural state of mankind]:
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5246
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Natural justice is the same everywhere, and does not (unlike legal justice) depend on acceptance
[Aristotle]
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20856
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Justice, the law, and right reason are natural and not conventional
[Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
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3561
|
Stoics originated the concept of natural law, as agreed correct reasoning
[Stoic school, by Annas]
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22114
|
Tyrannical laws are irrational, and so not really laws
[Aquinas]
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22113
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Right and wrong actions pertain to natural law, as perceived by practical reason
[Aquinas]
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23174
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Natural law is a rational creature's participation in eternal law
[Aquinas]
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19897
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Human laws must accord with the general laws of Nature
[Hooker,R]
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22133
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Grotius and Pufendorf based natural law on real (rather than idealised) humanity
[Grotius, by Ford,JD]
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7406
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A natural right of self-preservation is balanced by a natural law to avoid unnecessary harm
[Grotius, by Tuck]
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20484
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We should obey the laws of nature, provided other people are also obeying them
[Hobbes, by Wolff,J]
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6225
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Obligation to obey all positive laws is older than all laws
[Cudworth]
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6216
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Natural law is immutable truth giving moral truths and duties independent of society
[Cumberland]
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19916
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The order of nature does not prohibit anything, and allows whatever appetite produces
[Spinoza]
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19868
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It is only by a law of Nature that we can justify punishing foreigners
[Locke]
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7574
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Natural law theory is found in Aquinas, in Leibniz, and at the Nuremberg trials
[Leibniz, by Jolley]
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19959
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Prior to positive laws there is natural equity, of obedience, gratitude, dependence and merit
[Montesquieu]
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19960
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Sensation gives animals natural laws, but knowledge can make them break them
[Montesquieu]
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19750
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Writers just propose natural law as the likely useful agreements among people
[Rousseau]
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7245
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Natural justice, without sanctions, benefits the wicked, who exploit it
[Rousseau]
|
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7591
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Kant completed Grotius's project of a non-religious basis for natural law
[Scruton on Kant]
|
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20933
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Natural law theorists fear that without morality, law could be based on efficiency
[Zimmermann,J]
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20610
|
Instead of against natural law, we might assess unjust laws against the values of the culture
[Tuckness/Wolf]
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