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  • © 2013

The Threads of Natural Law

Unravelling a Philosophical Tradition

  • Revisits key moments in intellectual and social history, with an eye to extracting valuable lessons for ideological conflicts in the present
  • A timely work that enables moral and legal dialogue between traditions holding apparently clashing world-views such as at present
  • Highlights why Natural Law repeatedly furnished human beings with a shared grammar in times of moral and cultural crisis
  • Has close connections with current discussions on cultural relativism, bioethics, etc ?

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice (IUSGENT, volume 22)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. Cosmopolitanism and Natural Law in Cicero

    • Fernando Llano Alonso
    Pages 27-36
  3. God and Natural Law: Reflections on Genesis 22

    • Matthew Levering
    Pages 65-83
  4. Natural Right and Coercion

    • Ana Marta González
    Pages 85-105
  5. Natural Law and the Phenomenological Given

    • Marta Albert
    Pages 107-121
  6. Perspectivism and Natural Law

    • Ignacio Sánchez Cámara
    Pages 123-134
  7. Natural Law Theory in Spain and Portugal

    • Antonio E. Pérez Luño
    Pages 135-151
  8. Alasdair MacIntyre on Natural Law

    • Rafael Ramis-Barceló
    Pages 191-209
  9. Dworkin and the Natural Law Tradition

    • María Lourdes Santos Pérez
    Pages 211-222
  10. Public Reason, Secularism, and Natural Law

    • Iván Garzón Vallejo
    Pages 223-242

About this book

The notion of “natural law” has repeatedly furnished human beings with a shared grammar in times of moral and cultural crisis. Stoic natural law, for example, emerged precisely when the Ancient World lost the Greek polis, which had been the point of reference for Plato's and Aristotle's political philosophy. In key moments such as this, natural law has enabled moral and legal dialogue between peoples and traditions holding apparently clashing world-views. This volume revisits some of these key moments in intellectual and social history, partly with an eye to extracting valuable lessons for ideological conflicts in the present and perhaps near future. The contributions to this volume discuss both historical and contemporary schools of natural law. Topics on historical schools of natural law include: how Aristotelian theory of rules paved the way for the birth of the idea of "natural law"; the idea's first mature account in Cicero's work; the tension between two rival meanings of “man’s rational nature” in Aquinas’ natural law theory; and the scope of Kant’s allusions to “natural law”. Topics on contemporary natural law schools include: John Finnis's and Germain Grisez's “new natural law theory”; natural law theories in a "broader" sense, such as Adolf Reinach’s legal phenomenology; Ortega y Gasset’s and Scheler’s “ethical perspectivism”; the natural law response to Kelsen’s conflation of democracy and moral relativism; natural law's role in 20th century international law doctrine; Ronald Dworkin’s understanding of law as “a branch of political morality”; and Alasdair Macintyre’s "virtue"-based approach to natural law.​

Editors and Affiliations

  • , Filosofía del Derecho, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Francisco José Contreras

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access