Final Exam Flashcards
What Is Finnis’ main aim in this book?
to try and reformulate a modern theory of natural law. Wants to identify the goods that the legal system exists for.
“To identify the human goods that can be secured only through the institutions of human law.”
From what specific perspective does Finnis think we should analyze law? Why?
if there is a point of view in which
legal obligation is treated as at least presumptively a moral obligation,
a viewpoint in which
the establishment of legal as distinct from discretionary customary order is regarded as a moral ideal if not a compelling demand of justice
then such a viewpoint will constitute the central case of the legal viewpoint.
What is a theory of natural law according to Finnis?
The theory of what it is to be a practically reasonable person and to establish what is really good for human persons. There are three parts to his theory.
- Basic practical principles (goods, things that people want).
- Methodological principles of practical reasonableness
- Principles of morality
What role does Aquinas’s account of natural law play in Finnis’s theory.
He believes that his theory agrees with the basic ideas of natural law given by Aquinas.
When Finnis says that knowledge is a “basic form of good” what does that mean?
It is useful in the pursuit of some other objective, such as survival, power, or popularity.
Knowledge is of truth. It is desirable for its own sake. To think of knowledge as a basic form of good is not to think that knowledge would be equally valuable for every person, nor is it to think that such knowledge has any priority of value.
What does Finnis mean by self-evidence
- If something is self evident it doesn’t need to be proven Page 31.
- people assent to it without needing the proof of argument.
- It cannot be demonstrated, but equally it needs no demonstration.
When Finnis explains that knowledge is self-evident, that does not mean that everyone actually does recognize the value of knowledge, or that there are no preconditions for recognizing that value.
What are the other basic forms of good and why are they basic?
Knowledge Life Play Aesthetic experience Sociability (friendship) Practical Reasonableness Religion
They are considered basic because:
- each is equally a self-evidently a form of good
- these cannot be converted into a neutral quantity and measured up against one another
- each one can reasonably be regarded as the most important. There is no objective hierarchy amongst them
- these forms of good are irreducible, any one of them can mean an end to a humans actions
What are the basic requirements of practical reasonableness?
- The good of practical reasonableness structures our pursuit of goods. It shapes our participation in the other goods, and it helps us to choose what to do, what projects to commit our time to
- A coherent plan of life.
- No arbitrary preference amongst values
- No arbitrary preference amongst persons
- One should be both open minded and committed to one’s projects
- The relevance of consequences: actions should be reasonable efficient
- Respect for every basic value in every act
- The requirements of the common good- one should act to advance the interests of the community
- Following one’s conscience- we shouldn’t go against our inner conscience
How are these requirements related to morality as a whole?
What is right and morally good is simply seen by the person who is right-minded and morally good.
What does Finnis mean by community?
Think of a community not as a community or an association, but rather as a community or association–
- an ongoing state of affairs
- a sharing of life, action, or interests
- an associating or coming-together
A community in this sense is a matter of relationship and interaction.
Community means there is something in common. Relationship of some kind that we have.
What are the basic models of community?
Business, Play, and Friendship
What defines specifically political community?
Exists partially as
- a kind of business arrangement between self-interested associates,
- a form of play, in which the participants enjoy the give-and-take, the dissension, bargaining, and compromise.
- an expression of disinterested benevolence, reinforced by grateful recognition of what one owes to the community in which one has been brought up and in which one find and founds one’s family and one’s life plan.
Political community is known as complete community because of the Greeks. Polis=complete community. We have to get to the level of polis in order to exists.
Real connection between law and political community because law has characteristics of the complete community as we know it today.
What does Finnis mean by common good?
The good that is common to many people. Common equals more than one person.
For example, health is a common good because it is good for many people. But if you have it, it doesn’t mean everyone else has it, everyone has it separately.
Finnis definition: set of conditions which enables the members of a community to attain for themselves the values for the sake of which they have reason to collaborate with each other (positively and/or negatively) in a community
What is the basic meaning of justice?
An ensemble of requirements of practical reasonableness that hold because one must seek to realize and respect human goods not only for themselves but also in common, in community
Justice is about external relationships with people, equality doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing, it means everyone gets what they deserve.
What are the main types of justice?
General Justice and Particular Justice. Particular justice can be divided in two parts
Distributive Justice
(property rights) main object is common good. Main criteria is need, function, and capacity.
Corrective/Commutative Justice
Relates to a fundamental fairness in agreements and exchanges between social groups. Transactions between citizens, not having to do with the government. Commutative justice concerns only private transactions.
