to have the best society. A political law or system that
ignores natural law will not last long and will bring
problems and suffering on its people. The way to
know natural law, for Aquinas, is through reason,
scripture, experience, and tradition. The church
should advise the state on divine and natural law. This
THOMISTnatural-law philosophy still informs CATHOLIC
Church social theory. For example, the Catholic oppo-
sition to easy divorce laws is that Christ and nature
teach that the purpose of marriage is procreation (hav-
ing children) and is to be lifelong; allowing frequent
divorce in a society, then, according to the Catholic
Church, violates natural law and leads to many social
problems (juvenile delinquency, crime, homosexuality,
alcoholism, suicide, etc.). Similarly, natural-law logic
explains the Catholic Church’s opposition to ABORTION.
The end, or telos,of the fetus is to develop and be
born. Interrupting that purpose violates natural law
(the mother’s affection for her child; the fetus develop-
ment into human life, etc.) and leads to problems
(guilt, the devaluing of human life, etc.). So, Thomist
natural law places limits on what humans and societies
should do. A system (idolatrous NAZI FASCISM) or prac-
tice (HOMOSEXUALITY) that disregards God’s natural law
will produce disastrous personal and political conse-
quences, according to Catholic Church thought.
In the MODERNperiod, natural law theory is applied
to international politics by Hugo GROTIUSand to mar-
ket economics by Adam SMITH. Early NATURAL-RIGHTS
liberal philosophy (in John LOCKE, Thomas JEFFERSON)
is beholden to the natural-law school. The American
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCEand James MADISON’s U.S.
CONSTITUTION reflect natural-law philosophy: that a
God-given Nature system can be known through rea-
son and that the governmental structure can be con-
structed to conform to it, producing an orderly, stable,
and just state and society.
MEDIEVAL European society applied natural-law
thought to every aspect of life: individual psychology,
politics, and the universe. Shakespeare portrays the
need for order in the individual (reason over passion),
the society (good over evil), and cosmos (“God’s in His
heaven and all’s right with the world”). A disordered
person can throw off the whole polity and even the
natural universe itself.
The rise of POSITIVISM, materialism, and ethical rela-
tivism in the 19th and 20th centuries reduces the
prevalence of natural-law doctrine. Personal prefer-
ence, imagination, popular opinion, and majoritarian
politics challenge the idea that humans have given
laws and limits. Technology and science claim to tran-
scend and transform nature.natural rights
The idea that humans have certain rights by nature
that no government can legitimately violate or justly
take away. These natural rights, in John LOCKE’s phrase,
include “Life, LIBERTY, and PROPERTY.” The state in this
LIBERALtheory is created to protect and preserve these
INDIVIDUAL, natural rights (against criminal murder,
theft, slavery, etc.).
The original concept of natural HUMAN RIGHTSto be
protected by the government occurs in the ancient
Roman Empire, in which Roman citizens enjoyed cer-
tain rights (especially to a fair trial and against cruel
treatment) anywhere in the imperial realm (Israel,
Germany, Britain, etc.).
Natural-rights philosophy became prominent in
17th-century British liberal political theory (Thomas
HOBBESand John LOCKE) and 18th-century American
democratic thought (Thomas JEFFERSON, James MADI-
SON). For Hobbes, humans in their natural state (or
STATE OF NATURE) have a right to everything each can
get by physical power (including theft, murder, kid-
napping). This absolute natural right of everyone to
everything leads to competition and violence. The
state is formed by human reason into a SOCIAL CON-
TRACT, which gives power to a sovereign ruler who
protects citizen’s lives. The only right retained in CIVIL
SOCIETYfor Hobbes is the right to life; the state controls
everything else (property, communications, religion,
economics). Locke’s theory modifies the ABSOLUTIST
state to a more limited state that protects the natural
rights to life against murder of injury; LIBERTY (of
movement, thought, expression, and religion); and
PROPERTY(ownership, exchange, and investment). If
the state violates these citizens’ rights, the people have
a “right to revolution” to change their government to
one that protects their rights. Such natural-rights the-
ory is encoded in several historical documents (for
example, the English Bill of Rights of 1689; the French
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789;
the American DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1776, and
CONSTITUTION’SBill of Rights, 1791; and the United
Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).
Many applications and extensions of these human
rights occur in contemporary Western society (wo-
men’s rights; gay rights; children’s rights; rights for thenatural rights 217