Arthur Leff's Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law
PRINCIPLES & LAWS
Yale Law Professor Arthur Leff expressed the bewilderment of an agnostic culture that yearns for enduring values, in a brilliant lecture delivered at Duke University in 1979 (summarized for this book). The published lecture titled: “Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law” is frequently quoted in law review articles, but it is little known outside the world of legal scholarship. The heart of the problem, according to Professor Leff, is that any normative statement implies the existence of an authoritative evaluator. But with God out of the picture [in today’s secular society], every human becomes a “godlet” with as much authority to set standards as any other godlet or combination of godlets. For example, if a human moralist says, …show more content…
To a (mono) theist like Aquinas, the reality of a moral law was not in question. The question was how much of that law we could know from natural reason (or academic philosophy), and how much we could know only from Scripture or the Church. This two level system of reason and revelation, made it possible for Aquinas to fuse the pre-Christian philosophy of Aristotle with the revelation-based doctrines of the Church. …
The assertion of rights cannot for long be separated from the imposition of duties, however. If we give X a right to do as she wants, and she wants to get an abortion, we must soon face the question of protecting her from Y, who wants to protect the rights of unborn child. If majority opinion in the legislature favors some restrictions upon abortion, and there is no specific language in the Constitution on the subject, then “pro-choice” forces have to invoke something very much like a natural law duty to get their way. “Thou shalt not interfere with a woman’s right to choose abortion; indeed, thou must help to pay for abortions through tax money; more than that, thou shalt not legislate that the woman contemplating abortion must be fully informed about the potential adoptive parents who desperately want to provide a loving home for her unborn child.” Sez
Yale Law Professor Arthur Leff expressed the bewilderment of an agnostic culture that yearns for enduring values, in a brilliant lecture delivered at Duke University in 1979 (summarized for this book). The published lecture titled: “Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law” is frequently quoted in law review articles, but it is little known outside the world of legal scholarship. The heart of the problem, according to Professor Leff, is that any normative statement implies the existence of an authoritative evaluator. But with God out of the picture [in today’s secular society], every human becomes a “godlet” with as much authority to set standards as any other godlet or combination of godlets. For example, if a human moralist says, …show more content…
To a (mono) theist like Aquinas, the reality of a moral law was not in question. The question was how much of that law we could know from natural reason (or academic philosophy), and how much we could know only from Scripture or the Church. This two level system of reason and revelation, made it possible for Aquinas to fuse the pre-Christian philosophy of Aristotle with the revelation-based doctrines of the Church. …
The assertion of rights cannot for long be separated from the imposition of duties, however. If we give X a right to do as she wants, and she wants to get an abortion, we must soon face the question of protecting her from Y, who wants to protect the rights of unborn child. If majority opinion in the legislature favors some restrictions upon abortion, and there is no specific language in the Constitution on the subject, then “pro-choice” forces have to invoke something very much like a natural law duty to get their way. “Thou shalt not interfere with a woman’s right to choose abortion; indeed, thou must help to pay for abortions through tax money; more than that, thou shalt not legislate that the woman contemplating abortion must be fully informed about the potential adoptive parents who desperately want to provide a loving home for her unborn child.” Sez