Western philosophy has long nurtured the hope definitively to resolve ethical and political controversies through appeal to right reason, and thereby to secure moral direction and human meaning without the need for a defining encounter with God or the transcendent. As an intellectual aspiration the expectation is for a moral rationality that is universal, secular, open to all, and able adequately to frame and guide the moral life. The roots for such optimism lie at the beginning of the second millennium, grounded in part in the Stoic, natural law, themes that characterized post-traditional periods in Hellenic culture and the late Roman Republic.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Andorno, R. (2002). Biomedicine and international human rights law: In search of a global consensus. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 80(12), 959–963.
Aquinas, T. (1947). Summa theologiae. New York: Benziger Brothers.
Berry, R. (2009). The posthumanist challenge to a partly naturalized virtue ethics, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Boyle, J. (1999). Personal responsibility and freedom in health care: A contemporary natural law perspective, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), Persons and their bodies: rights, responsibilities, relationships (pp. 111–142). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Boyle, J. (2002). Limiting access to health care: A traditional Roman Catholic analysis, in H. T. Engelhardt, Jr. and M. J. Cherry (eds.), Allocating scarce medical resources: roman catholic perspectives (pp. 77–95). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Boyle, J. (2004). Natural law and global ethics, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), Natural law and the possibility of a global ethics (pp. 1–15). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Engelhardt, H.T., Jr., (1996). The foundations of bioethics, second edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Engelhardt, H.T., Jr., Garrett, J. and Jotterand, F. (2006). Bioethics and the philosophy of medicine: A thirty-year perspective. The journal of medicine and philosophy, 31(6), 565–568.
Erickson, S. (2009). Reflections on secular foundationalism and our human future, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Finnis, J., Boyle, J. and Grisez, G. (1987). Nuclear deterrence, morality, and realism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cherry, M. J. (2004). Natural law and the possibility of a global ethics. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Cherry, M. J. (2006). The death of metaphysics; the death of culture. Dordrecht: Springer.
Cicero, M.T. (1841–1842). The political works of marcus tullius cicero: comprising his treatise on the commonwealth; and his treatise on the laws, F. Barham, Esq. (trans.). London: Edmund Spettigue. [On-line.] Available: http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=0044.02
Giampietro, A. (2009). Preparation for the cure, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Green Musselman, J. (2009). Natural law for teaching ethics: An essential tool and not a seamless web, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Hanson, S. (2009). Moral acquaintances and natural facts in the Darwinian age, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Hart, H. L. A. (1961). The concept of law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Henry, D. (2009). Quid Ipse Sis Nosse Desisti, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Hittinger, R. (2003). The first grace: rediscovering the natural law in a post-christian world. Wilmington: ISI Books.
Hunter, J. D. (1991). Culture wars: the struggle to define america. New York: Basic Books.
Lee, P. (2009). Human nature and moral goodness, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
MacIntyre, A. (1981). After virtue. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
MacIntyre, A. (1988). Whose justice? which rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
McKay, A. (2009). Synderesis, law, and virtue, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Midgley, E. B. F. (1976). The natural law tradition and the theory of international relations. New York: Harper and Row.
Nyberg, I. (2009). Can moral norms be derived from nature? The incompatibility of natural scientific investigation and moral norm generation, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Paul, J. P., II (1998). Fides et ratio. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Rae, S. B. (2003). United States perspectives on assisted reproductive technologies, in J. F. Peppin and M. J. Cherry (eds.), Regional perspectives in bioethics (pp. 21–38). Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.
Strauss, L. T. et al. (2003). Abortion surveillance – United States, 2003, Centers for disease control, [On-line.] Available: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5511a1.htm
Tollefsen, C. (2009). Human nature and its limits, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Wake, P. (2009). Nature as second nature: Plasticity and habit, in M. J. Cherry (ed.), The normativity of the natural: human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cherry, M.J. (2009). The Normativity of the Natural: Can Philosophers Pull Morality Out of the Magic Hat of Human Nature?. In: Cherry, M.J. (eds) The Normativity of the Natural. Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2301-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2301-8_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-2300-1
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-2301-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)