THE PLACE OF THE NATURAL LAW A MACINYTREAN RECONSTRUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the precepts of natural law and, in particular, their metaphysical and epistemic relationship to human nature, rationality, theology, tradition, and practices. In this paper, the account of natural law is based on Alasdair MacIntyre'sapproach. However, since his claims regarding the dependence or independence of natural law from the notions previously mentioned might often seem ambiguous, the discussion along the essay engages in a reconstruction of a plausible approach to both understand MacIntyre's claims concerning this topic, and to conceive natural law. MacIntyre argues that we can conceive the precepts of natural law as the precepts of rational enquiry that we need to pursue in order to overcome the one-sidedness of our beliefs. The essay takes this line of argument considering MacIntyre's account of natural law as successful and questions the place of the established norms. As MacIntyre argues that all standpoints imply at least an implicit, even if not explicit, adherence to the authority of natural law in virtue of their claim to the truth, it is argued that regardless of the exact content of our practices and beliefs towards human nature, traditions, and religion, humans can learn the basic requirements of natural law. This consideration is valid even if natural law itself is metaphysically dependent on human nature or God. However, specific practices and beliefs can either shed more light or obscure the precepts of natural law. Hence, it is essential to learn from various traditions, religions, practices in a shared enquiry which norms aspire to follow the actual precepts of natural law, as carefully as possible.