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Let’s now turn to Chapter V of “Natural law and natural rights,” the most important chapter in Professor Finnis’s beautiful book. This chapter is a must-read because Professor Finnis does three big things in this chapter: (1) he presents a … Continue reading →

We interrupt our extended review of Finnis (2011) to present this beautiful coat rack made from an old chess board. (The pieces on this board/coat rack are set in the Caro-Kann opening position. More details here. Hat tip: The Amazing … Continue reading →

After making some preliminary clarifications in Chapter II and setting forth the first of his “underived first principles” (knowledge and truth) in Chapter III, Professor Finnis goes on to catalog his entire collection of “basic values” or “basic goods” in … Continue reading →

Now that we have addressed Chapters II and XII of “Natural Law and Natural Rights,” let’s jump into Chapter III, shall we? (We will thus skip Chapter I for now.) Among other things, we’ve already highlighted Professor Finnis’s preliminary clarifications … Continue reading →

We interrupt our extended review of “Natural law and natural rights” (we will hit Ch. III tomorrow) to take this opportunity to agree with our friend and colleague Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, that today (May … Continue reading →

We have thus far reviewed Chapter XII and the first half of Chapter II of John Finnis’s beautiful book “Natural Law and Natural Rights.” (Recall that Professor Finnis’s preface invites us to begin with these chapters.) Chapter II is devoted … Continue reading →

Although we have been extremely critical in our previous posts of John Finnis’s flawed and self-defeating reasoning, the learned professor rehabilitates himself in the third and fourth subsections of Chapter II, where he makes yet another preliminary clarification–this time about … Continue reading →

Yes, he did, in the second subsection of Chapter II. Before we explain why, recall that Professor Finnis is devoting this early chapter to make a series of “preliminary clarifications” (p. 24) before delving into the details of his theory … Continue reading →

As promised, we now proceed to Chapter II of “Natural Law and Natural Rights.” Professor Finnis begins this chapter by clearing his throat, so to speak, and announcing that his “present purpose … is not to anticipate later chapters, but … Continue reading →

Thus far, we have ripped to pieces the main arguments in Chapter XII of “Natural Law and Natural Rights.” Specifically, we have explained: Why Professor Finnis’s “practical reasonableness” criterion is indeterminate and idiosyncratic (see our April 23 post); Why his … Continue reading →