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Instructor Resource Manual – Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, 9e – MacKinnon & Fiala
Chapter 7: Natural Law and Human Rights
Learning Outcomes
• Describe the idea of natural law and how it relates to the idea of human rights.
• Explain how natural law theory is related to the law of peoples and norms of international
law.
• Identify the contributions to natural law theory made by key thinkers such as Cicero,
Thomas Aquinas, and John Locke.
• Explain the importance of teleology for thinking about natural law.
• Clarify how natural law arguments are grounded in claims about the essence of human
nature.
• Provide an overview of the natural law argument against relativism.
• Defend your own thesis with regard to the value of natural law theory and the idea of
human rights.
Associated Readings
1. Aquinas, “On Natural Law” from Summa Theologica (1265-1272).
2. Locke, from Second Treatise of Civil Government.
Getting Started
One way to begin this chapter is to ask whether the students think that there are such things as
Human Rights. For example, do they think that all human beings have a right to freedom of
speech or a right to life or health care? Do they have these rights whether or not their society
recognizes and protects these rights? Some may say that people have only those rights that their
society gives them or recognizes. They might be able to point out examples worldwide of
cultures or societies that do not recognize some of these things as rights. You might test the view
that there are no human moral rights by asking them: If a society enslaved a portion of its
population, and if you were in that enslaved group, could you not rightly claim that this was a
violation of your rights as a human being? From this you might lead them to think about the
significance of their human nature, as the basis of natural law theory and related theories of
human rights.
Another way to begin is to discuss and amplify the two examples, used at the beginning of this
chapter, illustrating aspects of natural law theory.
Instructor Resource Manual – Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, 9e – MacKinnon & Fiala
Key Terms
Natural law: a theory of law that is grounded in claims about nature; natural law ethics is a
normative theory that holds that reason can discover objective ethical norms by examining
natural human functions (associated with Aquinas).
Rights: basic entitlements that ordinarily cannot be taken away or overridden; can be positive
entitlements (positive rights) or negative protections (negative rights) (associated with Locke);
see also natural rights and human rights.
Natural rights: rights or entitlements that we have by nature, which are not created by positive
laws and which create a limit to legal intervention.
Human rights: rights that are basic to human beings, often described in universal terms that
transcend national and cultural differences; see also rights, natural rights.
Teleological: adjective used to describe ideas and theories that are focused on goals, purposes, or
outcomes.
Social Darwinism: idea of applying Darwinian evolution to society as a way of improving the
genetic stock of humanity (widely repudiated as immoral).
Just war theory: a theory about the justification of war that maintains that war should be limited
by moral concerns.
Answers to End of Chapter Review Exercises
1. Natural law theory is a moral theory that says there is an objective moral good and bad, right
2. Scientific laws of nature are descriptive laws. They express our beliefs about how nature does
3. Natural law theory is teleological in that it is based on human nature and its directedness to an
