Who is John Finnis?

• Australian academic, currently Emeritus Professor at Oxford University.
• His book Natural Law and Natural Rights (1980) is one of the most important recent books on the philosophy of law.
• His book has been criticized by many intellectuals.
• Around 700 years after Thomas Aquinas, John Finnis returned to Aquinas’ ideas and tried to reformulate a modern theory of natural law.
• Finnis argues many things about natural law including the following:

1. He says that the principles of natural law are not derived from anything: they are self-evident.
2. Natural law has no history because it is eternal and unchanging.
3. There are a number of human “goods” which are not derived from descriptions of the world but are understood by (or at least by) everyone.
4. One of these goods is called “practical reason” – he means the type of reasoning we use to make decisions.
5. He thinks that “practical reason” is universal, timeless.

Criticism:

• Whose idea of “reason” does his “practical reason” include?
• His concept is based on Western ideas of reason – can “practical reason” be isolated from the value system of a society? (see Davies at p90).
• What has historically counted as “reasonable” has reflected the values of white, European men. Differences in power have an effect on what we might count as “reasonable.”