Topic 6: Classical (Greek) Naturalism
1. Plato (427–347 BC) is a disciple of Socrates. Later,
Introduction
1. Natural law can be considered the first approach to
jurisprudential thinking about law.
2. Essentially, it attempts to abscribe the source or
reason for law to a ‘natural’ phenomenon, be it physical,
social, metaphysical or theological.
3. The first natural law juris from a Western
jurisprudential perspective were the ancient Greeks.
4. Natural law: Justice and common good, what is good
for human being.
5. Positive law: Emphasis law’s basis in authority.
Classical Greco-Roman Natural Law
1. Socrates → Plato → Aristotle
2. Most important contribution to the classical naturalism
during this period are by Plato and Aristotle.
3. Both were rationalist in their approach in that they
considered ‘good’ and ‘bad’ laws and the appropriate
reactions to them, to be discoverable by human reason
through the process of natural reaction.
Socrates
1. Socrates’s (469–399 BC) most important view is
‘virtue is knowledge’. He advanced a rigorous question-
and-answer style (‘refutation’) to uncover contradictions
in a person’s idea, and truth will be revealed.
2. Socrates challenged the role of Gods in the world.
Instead he advocated the need to question and critically
challenge everything using human’s reasons.
3. In 399 BC, after the fall of the Athenian empire,
Socrates was found by a jury of being guilty of impiety
and corrupting the morals of youth, and was sentenced
to death. Socrates’ friends arranged for his escape, but
he chose to stay and drink the fatal hemlock, arguing
that to defy the judgment against him would be to break
his agreements and commitments and to mistreat his
friends, his country and the laws of Athens.
Plato
he established his own school known as the Academy.
2. Plato developed an approach to understanding the
world known as Theory of Forms or Theory of Ideas.
Accordingly, the real world is just an imperfect
representation of timeless, absolute and unchanging
Ideas. Ideas are the non-physical essence of all things.
3. He proposed the idea of a philosopher-king in his
work Republic, instead of relying on a system of law.
According to Plato’s view, the philosopher-king could
attain absolute justice by consulting the divine wisdom
locked in his heart:
“And we foresaw that there was no chance of
perfection either in states or individuals until a necessity
was laid upon philosophers . . . of holding offiffiffice; or
until the sons of kings were inspired with a true love of
philosophy. . . . For the true philosopher despises
earthly strife; his eye is fixed on the eternal order in
accordance with which he moulds himself into the Divine
image (and not himself only, but other men), and is the
creator of the virtues private as well as public. . . . If one
son of a king were a philosopher, and had obedient
citizens, he might bring the ideal polity into being. Hence
we conclude that our laws are not only the best, but that
they are also possible, though not free from difficulty.”
4. Karl Popper blame Plato’s idea of the philosopher-
king for the rise of dictators like Adolf Hitler and Joseph
Stalin.
5. Plato regards values as having an eternal existence
and eternal veracity. Qualities such as justice and truth
exist in their own right. All men can do is attempt to
reproduce them.
6. To Plato, ‘goodness’, ‘virtue’, ‘honesty’ were eternal
and immutable, they constituted moral principles of
universal and timeless validity existing above and
unaffected by changing human attitudes or beliefs,
moral principles by reference to which all human actions
and views must be judged. It is a just state as one that
ensures that each class of persons ‘does its own job and
minds its own business’.
Aristotle
1. Aristotle (384–322 BC) was Plato’s student at his
Academy. After Plato’s death, Aristotle set up his own
school called Lyceum.
2. Aristotle was considered an exceptional person of
ancient Greece. He developed syllogistic logic, scientific
knowledge, particularly biology and anatomy through
dissections, and purportedly had written about 200
treatises, of which 31 survived.
3. Although much of what Aristotle theorised would be
considered wrongful thinking in modern times, he place
in history should not be forgotten because he set the
foundation for subsequent development in science and
philosophy.
4. On what is justice:
“. . . he who breaks the laws is considered unjust,
and, secondly, he who takes more than his share,
or the unfair man. Plainly, then, a just man will
mean (1) a law-abiding and (2) a fair man. A just
thing then will be (1) that which is in accordance
with the law, (2) that which is fair; and the unjust
thing will be (1) that which is contrary to the law, (2)
that which is unfair.
We found that the law-breaker is unjust, and the
law-abiding man is just. Hence it follows that
whatever is according to law is just in one sense of
the word. . . . for what the legislator prescribes is
according to law, and is always said to be just.”
5. Justice as virtue:
“Justice, then, in this sense of the word, is complete
virtue, with the addition that it is displayed towards
others. . . . How virtue differs from justice in this sense is
plain from what we have said; it is one and the same
character differently viewed: viewed in relation to others,
this character is justice; viewed simply as a certain
character, it is virtue.
For the great bulk, we may say, of the acts which
are according to law are the acts which the law
commands with a view to complete virtue; for the law
orders us to display all the virtues and none of the vices
in our lives.”
6. On rule of law:
“. . . we do not allow an individual to rule over us,
but reason or law; for an individual is apt thus to take
more for himself, and to become a tyrant.”
7. On the role of the judiciary:
“The magistrate’s function, then, is to secure that
which is just, and if that which is just, then that which is
equal or fair. But it seems that he gets no advantage
from his office, if he is just (for he does not take a larger
share of the good things of life, except when the larger
share is proportionate to his worth; he works, therefore,
in the interests of others, which is the reason why justice
is sometimes called ‘another’s good, as we remarked
before).
Some salary, therefore, must be given him, and this
he receives in the shape of honours and privileges; and
it is when magistrates are not content with these that
they make themselves tyrants.”
8. On nature of justice:
“. . . of that which is just as between citizens, part is
natural, part is conventional. That is natural which has
the same validity everywhere, and does not depend on
our accepting or rejecting it; that is conventional which at
the outset may be determined in this way or in that
indifferently, but which when once determined is no
longer indifferent . . . .
Now, there are people who think that what is just is
always conventional, because that which is natural is
invariable, and has the same validity everywhere, as fire
burns here and in Persia, while that which is just is seen
to be invariable.
But this is not altogether true, though it is true in a
way. Among the gods, indeed, we may venture to say it
is not true at all; but of that which is just among us part
is natural, though all is subject to change. Though all is
subject to change, nevertheless, I repeat, part is natural
and part not.”
9. On equity:
 “. . . though what is equitable is just, it is not
identical with, but a correction of, that which is just
according to law.
What is equitable, then, is just, and better than what
is just in one sense of the word—not better than what is
absolutely just, but better than that which fails through
its lack of qualification. And the essence of what is, in
those points where it fails through the generality of its
language. The reason why the law does not cover all
cases is that there are matters about which it is
impossible to lay down a law, so that they require a
special decree.”
8. They believed in law of reason. So long as a man
lived according to his reason, he was said to be in
conformity with natural law. The Stoic ideals and
thinking contributed to the evolution of the universality of
the doctrine of natural law.
Stoics’ View on Natural Law
1. Stoics differ from Aristotle in their understanding of
‘natural law’, and this has partly influenced the nature of
Roman law. Instead of dividing laws into a two-fold
classification like Aristotle, Stoics uses ius civile (man-
made civil law), ius gentium (people’s law) and ius
naturale (natural law).

2. Stoics saw mankind as one brotherhood. They looked

Stoicism outside the city state, outside the Empire and saw the
whole of the human race as being bound and united by
Introduction
the brotherly love that the precepts of natural law
1. Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium (333–264 enjoined.
BC), in Athens around the early 3rd century BC.
Similarity to Animals
2. The name ‘Stoic’ refers to Stoa Poikile or ‘painted
1. Ius gentium is considered a part of natural law. Unlike
porch’ in Greek, a place near the marketplace because
ius naturale, which also governs the conduct of animals,
the Stoics could not afford a building like Plato’s
ius gentium is only found in humans.
Academy or Aristotle’s Lyceum.
2. On the other hand, Stoics view animals, like humans,
3. Zeno started teaching about Stoicism around 301 BC,
as having ‘soul’ and are capable of forming natural
and Stoicism was very influential among the ancient
norms. E.g. animals have natural impulse to self-
Romans. Stoic flourished until the middle of the second
preserve.
century (~180 CE).
3. The Stoics call a subset of activities in accord with
4. Very little has survived about Stoics. What we know
impulse “proper functions”. These proper functions are
today about Stoics mainly came through the Romans,
actions that, while natural land in accord with impulse,
e.g. Cicero (106–43 BC).
“are ones which reason dictates our doing” and that can
5. According to Stoics god is both the world itself and be justifified by reasoning as well.
the directing force that pervades all matter, governs the
4. E.g. of proper functions are honouring our family and
world, and gives the world its purpose of structure.
country, spending time with friends, looking after one’s
6. Stoics belief that that the entire universe was health, acting prudently and justly, marrying, conversing,
governed by “reason” and man’s reason was part of the and serving on embassies.
universal reason.
5. Functions which are contrary to natural include
7. When man lived according to reason, he lived adultery, theft and violence.
naturally. It was reason which led men to differentiate
6. Cicero: “They [Stoics] think it important to understand
between right and wrong. Natural law was the result of
that nature creates in parents love for their children; and
one’s concept of right and rectitude. Thus, positive law
from this source we derive the general sociablity of the
must conform to the natural law.
human race . . . Even among animal nature’s power can
be observed; when we see the effort that they spend on 3. Consider this: According to Sextus: “In his
giving birth and rearing their young, we seem to be [Chrysippus] books On proper function, he says
listening to the voice of nature itself . . . Hence it follows explicitly concerning the burial of parents:
that mutual attraction among humans is also something
‘When parents die, we should use the simplest
natural. The mere fact of their common humanity
methods of burial, as though the body, like the nails and
requires one man nor to regard another as alien.”
the teeth or hair, were nothing to us and we give no care
7. Diogenes: “They [Stoics] say that any animal’s first or attention to anything like that. So too, if the flesh is
impulse is to preserve itself because it is at home with edible, people should use it, as they should one of their
itself by nature from the start. . . . the first thing that each own parts such as a severed foot and the like.”’
animal is at home with its own constitution and its
awareness of it. . . . Nature, they say, makes no
distinction between plants and animals since, beside
animals, it directs plants without impulse and
sensation. .”

No universal Natural Law

1. Unlike Aristotle who believed that natural law was

common and universally observed, Stoics do not hold
the same view.

2. According to them, even though God has made us

disposed to select things that are in accord with nature,
but these natural tendencies to virtual can be
disregarded, for men are capable of selecting things
contrary to nature and supreme law, and indeed, usually
do so.

3. E.g. cities pass laws which violate natural law, such

as private property.

Against slavery

1. Stoics argue that slavery is unnatural. Despite

differences between people, there are natural
commonality and equality among men and women.

2. Property function is for human being to be free from

slavery and subordination.

3. Slavery is a provision of ius gentium, by which one

person is subject to another’s power contrary to nature.

Stoic Influence

1. Roman orator Cicero defined natural law as “right

reason in agreement with nature”.

2. Roman Stoics emphasised on human’s reasoning

faculty to discover ius gentium and ius naturale.