Friday, June 21, 2013
NATURAL LAW
The Foundations of our Society Employ Natural Law.
In including Natural Law into my scheme of things, I felt the obligation to explore the ideas behind NL much further. Little did I know what mental agony this led to, as the subject happens to span at least 4 or 5,000 years.
But I charged into it manfully, and ordered up a number of books, downloaded many articles and papers and began to read voraciously. A short list of the main sources I consulted includes:
--The Bible
--The 5,000 Year Leap, Skousen
--The Spirit of the Law, Montesquieu
--Thomas Jefferson, Collected Writings
--Tocqueville, Democracy in America
--Aristotle, Collected Works
--St. Thomas Aquinas, Selected Writings
--The Declaration of Independence
--Natural Law and Natural Rights, John Finnis
--The Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Jay and Madison
--Republic, Cicero
--Polybius Works
--Mosaic Law
--The Torah
--Anglo-Saxon Common Law
--People's Law of Early Israel
--and many others!
So what did I net out of this exercise?
1. An enormous respect for all of these thinkers, from our founders all the way back to Greek and early Israeli times.
2. A firm handle on the main principles of natural law, natural rights, and natural duties.
3. The obvious conclusion that our founders used The Bible, Montesquieu, Cicero, People's Law, Aquinas, and Anglo-Saxon Law as sources for the synthesis of principles, architecture and implementation of our Constitution.
4. Most importantly, I had the disturbing realization of just how far we have drifted from the Constitution as it was intended to operate, and that these timeless principles are absolutely valid today if they are followed faithfully.
5. That we have been able to exist as a viable state very well indeed for over 230 years attests to the effectiveness of the timeless principles of Natural Law. This is now in considerable jeopardy from naysayers and ignorant experimentalists in governance and political scheming.
The shortcut method for understanding Natural Law, then, is to read our Declaration of Independence and Constitution carefully and fully. It is there, well said, proven, and timely! For a more complete understanding the best summary I have found is W. Cleon Skousen's, The 5000 Year Leap.
In including Natural Law into my scheme of things, I felt the obligation to explore the ideas behind NL much further. Little did I know what mental agony this led to, as the subject happens to span at least 4 or 5,000 years.
But I charged into it manfully, and ordered up a number of books, downloaded many articles and papers and began to read voraciously. A short list of the main sources I consulted includes:
--The Bible
--The 5,000 Year Leap, Skousen
--The Spirit of the Law, Montesquieu
--Thomas Jefferson, Collected Writings
--Tocqueville, Democracy in America
--Aristotle, Collected Works
--St. Thomas Aquinas, Selected Writings
--The Declaration of Independence
--Natural Law and Natural Rights, John Finnis
--The Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Jay and Madison
--Republic, Cicero
--Polybius Works
--Mosaic Law
--The Torah
--Anglo-Saxon Common Law
--People's Law of Early Israel
--and many others!
So what did I net out of this exercise?
1. An enormous respect for all of these thinkers, from our founders all the way back to Greek and early Israeli times.
2. A firm handle on the main principles of natural law, natural rights, and natural duties.
3. The obvious conclusion that our founders used The Bible, Montesquieu, Cicero, People's Law, Aquinas, and Anglo-Saxon Law as sources for the synthesis of principles, architecture and implementation of our Constitution.
4. Most importantly, I had the disturbing realization of just how far we have drifted from the Constitution as it was intended to operate, and that these timeless principles are absolutely valid today if they are followed faithfully.
5. That we have been able to exist as a viable state very well indeed for over 230 years attests to the effectiveness of the timeless principles of Natural Law. This is now in considerable jeopardy from naysayers and ignorant experimentalists in governance and political scheming.
The shortcut method for understanding Natural Law, then, is to read our Declaration of Independence and Constitution carefully and fully. It is there, well said, proven, and timely! For a more complete understanding the best summary I have found is W. Cleon Skousen's, The 5000 Year Leap.
