Natural Law Theory Analysis

According to the study of the historical development of the natural law theory, the people involved are Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Rousseau, and John Finnis even though there are others like Cicero, etc. Although these people helped in the development the natural law theory, there are critical analysis based on each concepts of the natural law. The existence of the Positivists brought about the critical analysis of the different concepts of the natural law theory. The first concept of the naturalists is based on Plato. He talked about absolute values and this perception results to justice evaluating that

His concept is based on reason and Aristotle used Polis to describe this , saying, that the city consists of political justice, Rights, orders, etc. Aristotle continued by saying that humans are termed as social animals meaning that they cannot live alone and it is the nature of humans to live in Polis. Justice is described in two different ways but these ways has related ideas . The two ways are natural justice and conventional justice which are included in the concept of political justice. With Aristotle’s theories, there are a lot of critics in them. One of his principle indicating that man is a political animal is very difficult to interpret and also to understand in these modern days. His argument for the primacy of the city-state has been criticized by the jurists for confusing two notions under the rubric of the city-state i.e. the government and the society. The government has legitimate power to rule a definite geographical area and it consists of the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary, which provide certain public goods while the term, ‘society’ consists of wide array of association that people meet their basic needs and excel and it contains an intricate web of human relationship. With the definitions

Thomas Hobbes talked about the Self-interest of humans and the way in which they agree with each other. His concept was based on the combination of self-interest and social contract in order for the peace in the state of the nature. One of the problem that dominated the interpretations of Thomas Hobbes indicated if he saw humans as purely self-interested or egoistic? Thomas Hobbes was described as an imagining human being who had no ideas of social interaction, and with this, he had no ideas about the right and wrong . John Locke’s concept was based on Private Property. His establishment was about the labor in which individuals put for them to own their own private properties. And with this, it will result to the common good of the people. His concept was based on the effort of an individual in order to own a property. Edward Stillingfleet strongly criticized John Locke and attacked him in three ways. The first one was based on Locke’s notion of reason, secondly he claimed that the certainty of the perception of agreement or disagreement between ideas is undermined by the fact that many of our most important ideas are not clear and