Natural Law and Rights

Eric R. Claeys

doi:10.1017/9781108951395.006

2 - Natural Law and Rights

from Part I - Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2025

Eric R. Claeys

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Eric R. Claeys: Affiliation:
George Mason University, Virginia

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Summary

Chapter 2 introduces the normative theory on which the book relies. Principles of natural law are guides for practical human action. The principles are “natural” because they are knowable through human reason and valid guides to action whether they have been accepted in any community’s laws. They are “law” in that they supply reasons or justifications for action. Natural law theory focuses human action on survival and on flourishing understood rationally. Natural law justifies reasoning with interests, understood as distinct components of a person’s well-being. Natural law also justifies reasoning with rights, understood as entitlements to act and be free from interference backed by claims against others. Natural rights focus social and political life on desirable, low, and uncontroversial goals like survival and freedom. Natural rights also help specialize – around distinct fields of human activity organized around people’s bodies, their capacities to make livings, their capacities to associate, and their capacities to use property.

Keywords

natural law natural rights interest right common good eudaimoneia perfectionism consequentialism deontology

Type: Chapter
Information: Natural Property Rights , pp. 33 - 57

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108951395.006 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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