The Equivocation of Natural Law

From Scholasticism to Modern Jusnaturalism

Abstract

The expression “natural law” becomes ambiguous when there is no clear distinction between its classical conception — ancient and medieval — and the modern one. In modernity, two approaches confront each other: a secular natural law (of an individualistic, nominalist and rationalist nature) and a “Catholic” theological-religious natural law. The first has been destroyed by positivism, while the second is unable to speak to the secular world; but neither of them is the classical natural law. The article reflects on the origin of the misunderstanding, tracing it back to the different conceptions of theonomy developed between the end of the thirteenth century and the Protestant Reformation. The study aims to show that a recovery of the classical conception of natural law is not only possible, but necessary.