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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Freedom To And Freedom From: A Response To Garvey And Armacost With A Tinge Of Legal Perfectionism, Steve Sheppard
Freedom To And Freedom From: A Response To Garvey And Armacost With A Tinge Of Legal Perfectionism, Steve Sheppard
Steve Sheppard
In his article Control Freaks, 47 Drake L. Rev. 1 (1998), Professor John Garvey offers a controversial explanation of how freedom works and why it is good, which is something the traditional American narrative of freedom assumes without attempting a further justification. Professor Garvey’s theory of freedom depends on freedom’s instrumental quality. Freedom is the mechanism that protects a citizen’s abilities to lead a good life and to act for moral purposes. Professor Garvey asserts that lawmakers must first evaluate the morality of an act before they decide whether it deserves protection. When an act does not serve a moral …
Natural Law And The Ethics Of Discourse, John M. Finnis
Natural Law And The Ethics Of Discourse, John M. Finnis
Journal Articles
This essay argues that Plato's critical analysis of the ethics of discourse is superior to Habermas', and more generally that Habermas has no sufficient reason to propose or suppose the philosophical superiority of "modernity." The failure of Hume and Kant and much modern philosophy to understand the concept and content of reasons for action underlies Habermas' attempted distinction between ethics and morality, and Rawls' concept of public reason. A proper study of discourse also yields a metaphysics of the person, and thus reinforces the ethics.