Natural Law and Civil Law

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Leviathan as bearer of supreme authority and nationals who posses certain inalienable rights. We should draw attention to Hobbes’ reasoning about natural law and civil or positive law. According to Hobbes they both match with scope, form and content. However, natural law, which is impartial, equitable, legitimate, and moral in natural state is not the law itself; it just disposes people to peace, mercy, and obedience. Natural law is the laws that have existed and will exist forever. Governors and judges come and go, but natural law will exist forever because it is divine law.

Natural law becomes actual law after the state had been established. It is already written about civil or positive law, which became so because of will of bearer of supreme authority. People must obey civil law as it is impartial and virtue. The state establishes this law, makes it compulsory and sets the punishment for its violation. Natural law and natural freedom can be restricted by civil law for preserving of peace between people and uniting them against common enemy.

Thomas Hobbes made an effort to formulate his own understanding of state with a view at reasons and terms of state origin. His philosophical concept of state agues a thesis about two conditions of any human society: natural, where there is no state organization, and civil. That is why he divided philosophy into two main parts: natural philosophy and civil philosophy (state philosophy). As for the determination of the basic characteristics of state it is necessary to study people inclinations, affects, rights and morals, the state philosophy itself is divided into two sections: the first one, treating inclination and morals, called ethics, and the second one, studying civil obligations, c...

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...sibilities. Thus, the ideal freedom of the person is a personal freedom from society.

As we see humanism flourished from Renaissance epoch until our own century through many significant changes, such as religious, political and social revolutions, but it is still the theory and practice which people choose as their world-view and lifestyle. This intellectual movement gave birth to many talented and great philosophers (Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus etc.) and became a background for political philosophy and theories, such as rule-of-law state, separation of powers and social compact. Humanistic tradition is still alive and develops within modern society.

References

Hilary Bok. Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. Plato.stanford.edu. Stanford University. 20 January, 2010. Web. 16 April 2011

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