Foundations of Natural Morality

On the Compatibility of Natural Rights and the Natural Law

Seagrave S. Adam

Recent years have seen a renaissance of interest in the relationship between natural law and natural rights. During this time, the concept of natural rights has served as a conceptual lightning rod, either strengthening or severing the bond between traditional natural law and contemporary human rights. Does the concept of natural rights have the natural law as its foundation or are the two ideas, as Leo Strauss argued, profoundly incompatible? With "The Foundations of Natural Morality", S. Adam Seagrave addresses this controversy, offering an entirely new account of natural morality that compellingly unites the concepts of natural law and natural rights. Seagrave agrees with Strauss that the idea of natural rights is distinctly modern and does not derive from traditional natural law. Despite their historical distinctness, however, he argues that the two ideas are profoundly compatible and that the thought of John Locke and Thomas Aquinas provides the key to reconciling the two sides of this long-standing debate. In doing so, he lays out a coherent concept of natural morality that brings together thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Hobbes and Locke, revealing the insights contained within these disparate accounts as well as their incompleteness when considered in isolation. Finally, he turns to an examination of contemporary issues, including health care, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty, showing how this new account of morality can open up a more fruitful debate.

About the Author

S. Adam Seagrave is assistant professor of political science at Northern Illinois University.

Reviews

"Seagrave offers his readers a remarkable intellectual journey from ancient through modern and even contemporary times. This is one of the most important books on natural law and natural rights in a generation. Not only does Seagrave skilfully and fluently explore the philosophical foundations of natural morality, he also shows how the concepts of natural law and natural rights, properly understood, can enrich current public policy debates surrounding such controversial issues as universal health care, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty. Seagrave gives the venerable natural law and natural rights tradition a new breath of life that will challenge and provoke many contemporary political theorists and public policy thinkers out of our often complacent assumptions about justice" – Lee Ward, University of Regina

"This book has many virtues. S. Adam Seagrave presents provocative, but carefully constructed arguments about an issue of great importance to political theorists and historians of political thought. His prose is very clear and engaging, even in the midst of his tussles with other scholars" – Bernard Yack, Brandeis University

"This is an extraordinary book, combining very original work in history of philosophy with very original work in political philosophy itself to produce striking new answers to some very old questions" – Michael Zuckert, University of Notre Dame

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