What is Valid Law?

We are now prepared to discuss the classical question, What is valid law? As a starting point, let me make an abbreviated restatement of theses defended in the preceding chapters.

• 1. Most human beings actually have a disposition to endorse coherent systems and to act as if they had intended to approximate a perfectly rational discourse.

• 2. An analysis of some moral and theoretical concepts justifies the conclusion that if one intends to correctly think about practical matters, one should have a disposition to arrange one’s practical opinions into a coherent system and to follow the rules of discursive rationality. If the concepts were abandoned, rational discourse of legal and moral problems would be impossible. In consequence, our form of life would change radically.

• 3. Coherence makes our opinions stable. The hypothesis is plausible that it is more difficult for an individual to reject a highly coherent system than an isolated statement. If one intends to make one’s practical opinions stable, one should have a disposition to arrange them into a coherent system.

• 4. If one intends to create stable consensus concerning practical matters, one should have a disposition to arrange one’s practical opinions into a coherent system and to follow the rules of rational discourse.

• 5. A stable consensus facilitates achievement of such goals as efficient organisation, minimisation of violence and, ultimately, survival of the species. If one intends to increase the chance of survival of mankind, one should have a disposition to arrange one’s practical opinions into a coherent system and to follow the rules of rational discourse.