Natural Law: Reflections on Theory and Practice

These essays, selected from the writings of one of the most influential philosophers of the past hundred years, provide a clear statement of MaritainÔÇÖs theory of natural law and natural rights. MaritainÔÇÖs ethics and political philosophy occupies a middle ground between the extremes of individualism and collectivism. Written during a period when cultural diversity and pluralism were beginning to have an impact on ethics and politics, these essays provide a defense of natural law and natural right that continues to be timely.

The first essay introduces MaritainÔÇÖs theory of connatural knowledge ÔÇô knowledge by inclination ÔÇô that lies at the basis of his distinctive views on moral philosophy, aesthetics, and mystical belief. The second essay gives MaritainÔÇÖs principal metaphysical arguments for natural law as well as his account of how that law can be naturally known and universally held.

The third essay in this collection explains the roots of the natural law and shows how it provides a rational foundation for other kinds of law and for human rights. In the fourth essay, reflecting his personalism and integral humanism, Maritain indicates how he extends his understanding of human rights to include the rights of the civic and of the social or working person.