Matthew’s Reviews > Natural Law And Natural Rights (Clarendon Law) > Status Update

Extremely clarifying. Great exposition of how natural law theory has been misconceived or misrepresented by others.

Restarting Finnis after too long away.

Finnis intriguingly begins his account of practical reason (one’s moral action) with the requirement of having a plan (or plans) of life (meaning a broad purpose and orientation); a chosen focus on something such as scholarship, marriage, etcetera.

A much broader canvas to consider moral action within than we typically consider.

Finnis also has a great critique of Rawls’ thin conception of what is good.

The terminology for Finnis’ basic goods is a little confusing, but the schema makes sense.

Finnis is a paragon of analytic rigour.

Terrific preliminary outline of the misunderstandings of natural law.

Compelling argument for the necessity of natural law to ground theoretical definitions.