It is argued that despite attempts to discount the importance of natural rights for morality, they are fundamental to it; therefore, so too are natural rights to the legitimacy of the law.
References
[1]
St. T. Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1a2ae. Vol. 18, p. 5, quoting Dionysius.
[2]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I, p. 7.
[3]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, IV, V, p. 1.
[4]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, V, p. 9.
[5]
Aristotle, Rhetoric, I, p. 13.
[6]
C. Kluckhohn, “Ethical Relativity, Sic et Non,” The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 52, No. 23, 1955, p. 672.
[7]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, V, p. 1, quoting Plato, Republic, p. 343c.
[8]
In: Joannis Evangelium, Vol. 29, as quoted by St T. Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1a. Vol. 38, 1 ad 1.
[9]
In Joannis Evangelium 29; as quoted by St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1a. 38, 1 ad 1.
[10]
This is strangely overlooked by John Kilcullen in his “Medieval and Modern Concepts of Rights: How Do They Differ?”, so that he ends up arguing that natural rights should be recognized just because they are “useful”. Acta Philosophica Fennica, Vol. 87, 2010, pp. 31-62.
[11]
Aristotle, Rhetoric, II, p. 2.
[12]
J. Bowring ed., “Anarchical Fallacies,” Works, Vol. 2, 1843.
[13]
Sophocles, “The Theban Plays,” Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1967, p. 128.
[14]
“After Virtue,” Duckworth, London, 1985, p. 69.
[15]
“After Virtue,” Duckworth, London, 1985.
[16]
“After Virtue,” Duckworth, London, 1985.
[17]
Aristotle, Rhetoric, II, p. 9 (emphasis added).
[18]
“The Parable of the Fox and the Unliberated Animals,” Ethics, Vol. 88, No. 2, January 1978, p. 122.
[19]
P. Singer, “Practical Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 19.
[20]
P. Singer, “Practical Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.
[21]
P. Singer, “Practical Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 18.
[22]
P. Singer, “Practical Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 17.
[23]
P. Singer, “Practical Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 12.
[24]
P. Singer, “Practical Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 19.
[25]
P. Singer, “Practical Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 22.
[26]
G. E. M. Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Ethics Religion and Politics, Oxford, Blackwell, 1981, p. 40.
[27]
A. Dongan, “The Theory of Morality,” Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1977, p. 183.
[28]
B. Williams, “Morality - An Introduction to Ethics,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990, p. 109.
[29]
R. G. Frey, “Rights, Killing and Suffering,” Blackwell, Oxford, 1983, p. 67.
[30]
R. G. Frey, “Rights, Killing and Suffering,” Blackwell, Oxford, 1983, p. 81.
[31]
R. G. Frey, “Rights, Killing and Suffering,” Blackwell, Oxford, 1983, p. 51.
[32]
R. G. Frey, “Rights, Killing and Suffering,” Blackwell, Oxford, 1983, p. 48.
[33]
R. Gaita, “Good and Evil:An Absolute Conception,” MacMillan, London, 1991, p. 4.
[34]
R. Gaita, “Good and Evil:An Absolute Conception,” MacMillan, London, 1991.
[35]
R. Gaita, “Good and Evil:An Absolute Conception,” MacMillan, London, p. 5.
[36]
Gorgias, p. 469b.
[37]
“Human Personality” as quoted in R. Gaita, “Good and Evil:An Absolute Conception,” MacMillan, London, p. 7.
[38]
J. Feinberg, “Freedom and Fulfilment,” Princeton University Press, USA, 1992, p. 239.
[39]
“Human Personality”; as quoted in R. Gaita “Good and Evil:An Absolute Conception,” MacMillan, London.
[40]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, III, p. 1.
[41]
J. J. Thomson, “The Right and the Good”, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 94, No. 6, June 1997, p. 276,
[42]
Aristotle, Politics, VII, p. 3.
[43]
Aristotle, Politics, VII.
[44]
M. Stocker, “Plural and Conflicting Values,” OUP, Oxford, 1992, p. 9.
[45]
R. Gaita, “Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception,” MacMillan, London, 1991, p. 69.
[46]
R. Gaita, “Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception,” MacMillan, London, 1991, p. 224.
[47]
J. P. Sarte, “Existentialism is a Humanism,” In: W. Kaufmann, ed., Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, New American Library, New York, 1975.
[48]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, III, p. 1.
[49]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, III, p. 58.
[50]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, II, p. 6.
[51]
Aristotle, Rhetoric, I, p. 13.
[52]
Aristotle, Politics, VII, p. 16.
[53]
I. L. Quincy, “Living a Christian Life,” Franciscan Press, Illinois, 1993, pp. 406-407.
[54]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, III, p. 1.
[55]
Aristotle, Politics, VII, p. 2.
[56]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, X, p. 9. (Surely “most” is exaggerated, “many” more accurate.)
[57]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, X.
[58]
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, V, p. 1.
[59]
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion, 18 November, 1974, FN. P. 19.
[60]
St T. Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2a2ae. Vol. 64, p. 1.