TELEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
enduring when necessary.
Fundamental point of view: the law is ordained for the
achievement of the precepts of natural law
(Righteousness, justice, fairness, and equity) in the legal
order. The achievement or realization of these precepts
is the telos or end of the law
Natural Law Basis
The teleological concept of law is based on the natural
law philosophy. For the teleologists, natural law has a
great deal more to do in shaping the concept of law
than any other idea. This is based on their view that
there is a very present bond or relationship existing
between positive law and natural law. In other words, it
is upon the precepts of the natural law that the
completeness of the legal order can be achieved.
The Greek Concept
The philosophers of ancient Greece felt the need for an
unassailable starting point in the study of the nature of
law. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle believed that good
faith in dealing with one another is the condition of life
in society. This means that human beings have a basic
idea of the precepts of the natural law enabling them to
distinguish between right and wrong and to discern
between good and bad.
Thus S, P, and A found their unassailable starting point
in the study of the nature of law in the moral nature
and good faith of human beings.
Absolute Justice
Socrates’ concept of justice:
1. No person is intentionally bad or evil because of his
or her understanding of justice. For Socrates, the
failure to do what is just and avoid what is unjust is
really due to morbid physiological appetites,
mistakes, or even bad company.
 He drew a distinction between absolute
knowledge of justice (episteme) and mere
opinion of justice (doxa)
2. Only the temperate person knows himself or herself
and, thus, able to bring his or her emotions under
control.
 He explained that in relation to the gods a
temperate person will do what is virtuous and
just, in relation to rights and obligations a
temperate person will do what ought and avoid
what ought not, and in relation to other persons
a temperate person will act properly, patiently
Rational Justice
Plato: “there is a hierarchy of reality”; He drew a sharp
dividing line between ideal reality and physical reality.
Plato explained that apart from objects and entitites
that are observable to the physical sense there exists
another timeless dimensions of reality, which is
concerned with other entitites. To this “other entitites”,
Plato gave the name “ideas” and held that all objects
and activities yielding to the physical senses are only
representations of, or named after, certain “ideas” by
virtue of their relationship to them.
The reality or idea of “justice” exists in the mind even
though one does not see it done or performed in fact.
Thus, Plato postied the concept of justice yielding to the
rational mind. Rational justice is sufficient to enable
human beings to attain their moral nature and good
faith, keeping their self-respect by doing good and
fulfilling their proper functions in the society.
Particular Justice
Aristotle:
 Denied Socrates’ concept of absolute justice as
too exacting for it demanded the kind of moral
excellence which is the culmination of all
virtues.
 Does not agree with Plato’s concept of rational
justice because it was still a subjective virtue.
 He taught his students the “sound sense” view
of justice. For him, the concept of justice is
nothing more pretentious than the virtue of
epiekeia, that is to say justice which grows out
of the sense of fair equality. In other words,
justice is sound and sensible when, in light of
events and circumstances, it is fair and equal.
In the thinking of Aristotle, the rigidity of the
administration of justice, which is apparent in the
jurisprudence of S and P, should be tempered with fair
equality. On this basis, A differentiated between
proportional justice and numerical justice.
Proportional justice – each person receives what she or
he is entitled to on the basis of ability and achievement.
Numerical Justice- each person, regardless of station in
life, counts for one and only one.
Law as the Product of Reason Related to Justice and
Equity
To the Greek philosophers, the problem of the nature of
a thing is not solved by analyzing its primitive state but
more importantly its effective development, that is to
say, its condition of actual fulfillment or complete
realization. Thus, a thing is said to be in accord with, or
realized in, its true nature when it is fully developed.

In the case of law, its fulfilled reality is found in the

achievement of the precepts of the natural law in the
legal order. To this end all persons are to conform their
actions because such an end is part of the natural order
of things.