Nature in Aquinas’s Theory of Jus Naturale
Nature in Aquinas’s Theory of Jus Naturale

Summary/Abstract: The incorporation of the Aristotelian “nature” with its own ontological consistency into the Christian universe created by God is the most important component of Aquinas’s thesis. The concept of “nature” is also fundamental for the foundation of the “right” in Aquinas’s philosophy of law. The ancient Greek philosophy and especially the Aristotelian idea of natural right (dikaion physikon) is the leading source for his perception of the “jus naturale.” The “nature of things” is the foundation of natural right, while the positive right is posited by the human law as an outcome of agreement. In this context, juridicity is conceived in relation to justice and is not constituted by a law or by a moral (lex naturalis) or legal norm. Finnis’s reading of Aquinas’s Natural Law is a subjectivist one which is based on the tradition of modern natural law as the source of subjective rights and is not compatible with Aquinas’s doctrine of “jus naturale” proceeding from the Aristotelian conception of “nature.”

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