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Crowe, Jonathan; Youngwon Lee, Constance --- "The natural law outlook" [2019] ELECD 2201; in Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance (eds), "Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 1

Book Title: Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory

Editor(s): Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: The natural law outlook

Author(s): Crowe, Jonathan; Youngwon Lee, Constance

Number of pages: 11

Abstract/Description:

Jonathan Crowe and Constance Lee’s introductory chapter outlines and explores a broad definition the natural law outlook as the view that (1) there are certain forms of life that are intrinsically good for humans by virtue of their nature, and (2) these forms of life play a fundamental role in explaining the nature and purpose of social, political and legal institutions. The natural law tradition focuses, in other words, on exploring what constitutes a flourishing human life and uses this to understand the ways we connect with each other in communities. This outlook entails that any adequate theory of ethics, politics or law - whether descriptive or normative in its objectives - must begin by exploring the nature of human goods, before asking how pursuit of these goods shapes human communities and institutions. It makes little sense, on this view, to talk about rules (or related concepts, such as rights and interests) without embedding them in discussions of the good. The chapter then briefly summarises the other contributions to the volume.