more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 7245

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 2. The Law / c. Natural law ]

Full Idea

The laws of natural justice, lacking any natural sanctions, are unavailing among men. In fact, such laws merely benefit the wicked and injure the just, since the just respect them while others do not do so in return.

Gist of Idea

Natural justice, without sanctions, benefits the wicked, who exploit it

Source

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.06)

Book Ref

Rousseau,Jean-Jacques: 'The Social Contract', ed/tr. Cranston,Maurice [Penguin 1972], p.81

A Reaction

This seems a very accurate observation, and points us towards either contracts, or a justification of the use of force by good people.

The 22 ideas with the same theme [laws arising from the natural state of mankind]:

5246 Natural justice is the same everywhere, and does not (unlike legal justice) depend on acceptance [Aristotle]
20856 Justice, the law, and right reason are natural and not conventional [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
3561 Stoics originated the concept of natural law, as agreed correct reasoning [Stoic school, by Annas]
22114 Tyrannical laws are irrational, and so not really laws [Aquinas]
22113 Right and wrong actions pertain to natural law, as perceived by practical reason [Aquinas]
23174 Natural law is a rational creature's participation in eternal law [Aquinas]
19897 Human laws must accord with the general laws of Nature [Hooker,R]
22133 Grotius and Pufendorf based natural law on real (rather than idealised) humanity [Grotius, by Ford,JD]
7406 A natural right of self-preservation is balanced by a natural law to avoid unnecessary harm [Grotius, by Tuck]
20484 We should obey the laws of nature, provided other people are also obeying them [Hobbes, by Wolff,J]
6225 Obligation to obey all positive laws is older than all laws [Cudworth]
6216 Natural law is immutable truth giving moral truths and duties independent of society [Cumberland]
19916 The order of nature does not prohibit anything, and allows whatever appetite produces [Spinoza]
19868 It is only by a law of Nature that we can justify punishing foreigners [Locke]
7574 Natural law theory is found in Aquinas, in Leibniz, and at the Nuremberg trials [Leibniz, by Jolley]
19959 Prior to positive laws there is natural equity, of obedience, gratitude, dependence and merit [Montesquieu]
19960 Sensation gives animals natural laws, but knowledge can make them break them [Montesquieu]
19750 Writers just propose natural law as the likely useful agreements among people [Rousseau]
7245 Natural justice, without sanctions, benefits the wicked, who exploit it [Rousseau]
7591 Kant completed Grotius's project of a non-religious basis for natural law [Scruton on Kant]
20933 Natural law theorists fear that without morality, law could be based on efficiency [Zimmermann,J]
20610 Instead of against natural law, we might assess unjust laws against the values of the culture [Tuckness/Wolf]