Cicero (born 106 BC and died 43 BC) was a famous Roman lawyer, speaker, statesman, constitutionalist, and political philosopher. He wrote a famous book on law called De Legibus (which means roughly “On the Laws). In that book, he wrote a lot about what he thought law is and what he thought natural law is.
Cicero on law:
To Cicero, law was not a matter of written statutes and lists of regulations, but was a matter deeply ingrained in the human spirit, one that was an integral part of the human experience. His reasoning goes thus:
- Humans were created by a higher power or powers.
- This higher power which created the universe did, for reasons known to itself, endow humans with a bit of its own divinity, giving the human race the powers of speech, reason, and thought.
- Due to this spark of divinity inside humans, they must be related to the higher power in some fashion.
- Because humans share reason with the higher power, and because this higher power is presumed to be benevolent, it follows that humans, when employing reason correctly, will likewise be benevolent.
- This reason is what Cicero considers the law. To him, the law is whatever promotes good and forbids evil. What holds us back from upholding this absolutely is our human failings, our lusts for pleasure, wealth, status, etc.