CHAPTER 13
Law:
Understanding the Rule of Reason
How many times have we heard the phrase, “There ought to
be a law.” Usually we find ourselves using that phrase, not
because we have carefully thought out the need for a change in
our legal system, but because we are annoyed, offended, or
otherwise upset. Conversely, when we are stopped for running
a stop sign or driving forty miles an hour in a twenty-five mile-
an-hour zone, the lament is usually, “What a stupid law, what a
ridiculous place for a stop sign—twenty-five miles an hour on
this road is ludicrous.” Luckily law is not enacted at the whim
or whine of unhappy or recently arrested citizens.
Law is a basic concept which is vital to the study of political
philosophy. Laws are the product of complex forces and factors
which are important to understand. Simply stated, law is rules for
the guiding of human conduct. There are all kinds of law— we
speak of moral laws, natural laws, scientific laws, divine laws,
political laws, criminal laws, civil laws, and international laws—
to name but a few.
There are two important concepts about law that we should
examine first. Law must be enacted and enforced. Enactment
and enforcement, however, can be very different, since there are
many different types of law. Scientific laws are enacted and
enforced by nature; man discovers such laws and seeks to
understand them. Often men seek to defy them, and when they
do, the price they pay is high. The only times men can seemingly
defy nature’s laws are when men in fact cooperate with nature
and use the laws to achieve the ends desired. The flight of an
airplane is not in defiance of scientific laws, but is possible due
to the use of scientific laws.
The Ten Commandments can be referred to as divine law or
as moral law. In the final analysis, the individual enacts divine
or moral law. By the process of determining one’s moral values,
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