Table Of ContentTHE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
Natural Law and History: The Use and Abuse of Practical Reason
A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Department of Politics
School of Arts and Sciences
Of The Catholic University of America
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
©
Copyright
All Rights Reserved
By
Nathanael Alan Blake
Washington, D.C.
2015
Natural Law and History: The Use and Abuse of Practical Reason
Nathanael Alan Blake, Ph.D.
Director: Claes Ryn, Ph.D.
The new natural law theory of John Finnis and others is an ambitious but flawed
reinterpretation of the natural law tradition. It dispenses with ontological or teleological
commitments, appealing instead to practical reason and self-evident first principles directing one
toward basic human goods as starting points for moral reflection. The new natural lawyers claim
that their methods yield absolute moral norms that must never be violated, but these norms
produce legalistic casuistry and undermine personal moral responsibility.
Among the alternative approaches to natural law theorizing that help rectify these
difficulties is the work of Jean Porter, whose interpretation of Aquinas deemphasizes natural law
as a means of deriving specific universal moral principles, instead viewing the natural law as a
capability for moral reflection. The work of Alasdair MacIntyre, who argues that truth emerges
from within traditions, not as a universally accessible set of principles, is also valuable for this
project.
Such considerations direct one to Hans-Georg Gadamer, who provided an understanding
of truth that is neither relativistic nor scientistic. Rather than viewing human contingency and
finitude as obstacles to be overcome in the quest for truth, he regarded them as the conditions in
which truth may be known. Although it is not possible to arrive at a final, universal formulation
of moral truth, moral truth is not beyond our grasp. Rather, truth has the character of an
encounter in the moment of moral insight or communication. Reconsidered in light of this, the
natural law is best understood not as a universal set of moral principles, accessible to all
reasonable people of goodwill, but the capability for true moral apprehension, communication
and imagination within the contingencies and finitude of human existence.
Edmund Burke is an example of a statesman who embodied this approach to the natural
law. He also illustrates the too-often neglected importance of imagination to the apprehension of
moral truth. While the theological side of this reconsideration of natural law remains to be
explored, a beginning may be made by considering Soren Kierkegaard and Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
and their emphasis on the personal God of Christianity.
This dissertation by Nathanael Alan Blake fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral
degree in political theory approved by Claes Ryn, PhD, as Director, and by David Walsh, PhD,
and Stephen Schneck, PhD as Readers.
________________________________
Claes Ryn, Ph.D., Director
________________________________
David Walsh, Ph.D., Reader
________________________________
Stephen Schneck, Ph.D., Reader
ii
To my lovely wife Julie, sunbeam and sub-editor
“Across the pale parabola of joy”
iii
“The deity does not view the human race collectively. With one glance he sees every human
being separately and sees in each the resemblances that make him like his fellows and the
differences which isolate him from them. It follows that God has no need of general ideas, that
is to say, He never feels the necessity of giving the same label to a considerable number of
analogous objects in order to think about them more conveniently. It is not like this with man. If
a human intelligence tried to examine and judge all the particular cases that came his way
individually he would soon be lost in a wilderness of detail and not able to see anything at all.
General ideas do not bear witness to the power of human intelligence but rather to its
inadequacy.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
iv
Table of Contents
Preface.......................................................................................................................................... viii
Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... ix
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
The New Natural Law: From Methodology to Martyrdom .......................................................... 13
John Finnis and the New Natural Law Method......................................................................... 13
The New Natural Law and the Old ........................................................................................... 24
Connaturality and Principles ..................................................................................................... 32
The Problem of Moral Disagreement ........................................................................................ 38
Moral Reasoning and Absolutes ............................................................................................... 46
Intention and Absolutes ............................................................................................................. 51
Though the Heavens Fall........................................................................................................... 60
Jean Porter: Reclaiming Aquinas .................................................................................................. 68
Modern Natural Law: Failure and Faction ................................................................................ 68
The Medieval Natural Law ....................................................................................................... 73
Bringing Ontology Back ........................................................................................................... 82
Happiness, Virtue and Intention ................................................................................................ 89
History and Community in the Natural Law ............................................................................. 97
MacIntyre and Moral Understanding .......................................................................................... 103
v
Porter on MacIntyre ................................................................................................................ 103
Becoming Independent and Rational ...................................................................................... 106
Natural Law and Community .................................................................................................. 122
Reintegrating Responsibility ................................................................................................... 132
Rethinking Universality: Porter Contra MacIntyre ................................................................. 138
Traditions and Cultures: Conflict and Dialogue ..................................................................... 146
Gadamer: Truth and Finitude ...................................................................................................... 154
Rehabilitating Prejudice .......................................................................................................... 154
Horizons and Language ........................................................................................................... 163
The Hermeneutics of Moral Knowledge ................................................................................. 174
Contingency and Adequacy .................................................................................................... 184
Phronesis ................................................................................................................................. 194
Dialogue, Ethics and Rhetoric ................................................................................................. 205
Reconsidering the Natural Law ............................................................................................... 210
Edmund Burke: Imagination and the Natural Law ..................................................................... 217
Discovering Burke as a Natural Law Thinker ......................................................................... 219
Burke and his Contemporaries ................................................................................................ 225
Burke’s Natural Law: Tradition and Communication............................................................. 235
Moral Imagination and Manners ............................................................................................. 247
vi
Moral Imagination and Narrative ............................................................................................ 254
The Complexity of Moral Knowledge .................................................................................... 259
Natural Law and the Statesman ............................................................................................... 269
Conclusion: Natural Law and History ........................................................................................ 274
Christian Considerations ......................................................................................................... 274
Natural Law and History ......................................................................................................... 289
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 298
vii
Preface
“Oh, we always give our testimony. We always manage to give that somehow, even if it is
discredited by the witness...We are the miserable race of poets, of writers, of men who think they
have something to say.”
G.K. Chesterton
In addition to the difficulties attendant upon writing any piece of political theory, works
addressing moral philosophy also face the problem of the evident unworthiness of the author.
This is exacerbated when the arguments presented emphasize not impersonal reason, but
personal knowledge and the importance of the will to moral understanding. The author is liable
to be challenged not merely on his intellectual credentials, but his moral ones as well. Not only
may I be ignorant or mistaken on the scholarly points, but I may be a moral failure, manifestly
unqualified to offer moral reasoning to the world. Short of a life of outstanding virtue, which I
can hardly be credited with, this is a hard charge to answer. The best I can say is that my
position is not simply my own, but has been informed by many others, often wiser and more
virtuous than myself. I do not claim that it is objectively true, for that would be to presume a
God’s-eye perspective. I offer it from within my horizon, and hope it will prove to be of worth
when it is encountered by others.
viii
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