PHL 275 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1C: Jeremy Bentham, Logical Truth, Legal Positivism
Document Summary
Natural law versus positivism: law is erected on a power relationship, law as power verse law as justice, natural law theory or naturalism. Law can only be understood in relation to certain views about the nature of moral judgements and standards: positivism. Law is best understood as a system of orders, commands, or rules enforced by power. Legal positivism: two british philosophers, jeremy bentham and john austin. Consequences of an act as the sole factor to be weighed in determining whether an act is morally right or good. St. thomas aquinas: law necessarily involves rules that must have some purpose or goal, four distinct types of law. Created by us for the purpose of carrying out the requirements of natural law: aristotle distinguished between two kinds of reason: speculative and practical. Speculative is our capacity as reasoning beings to apprehend or understand certain truths.
