Professor John Finnis's observations for the Austral Conference to mark the 25th anniversary of Natural Law and Natural Rights
Autor | Santiago Legarre/Alejandro Miranda Montecinos/Cristóbal Orrego Sánchez |
Páginas | 27-30 |
CU AD ERN OS pp . 2 7-30
THE AUSTRAL CONFERENCE TO MARK THE 25TH
ANNIVER SARY OF NAT U RA L LA W A N D NAT U RA L R IG H T S
I greatly reg ret that I cannot b e here among you to offer these re-
flections in person, to benefit from yo ur critical insights, and to enjoy
again the hospitality and friendship that you -an d es pecially Dr Santiago
Legarre- offered me on my first and, regrettably, only visit to these regions,
in Septem ber 2001. Even at a great distance, I feel especiall y pri vilege d
that you are devo ting t hese days to a considera tion or re consideration o f
a book that made its wa y into the pub lic domai n early in 1980, was soon
apprehended by that notable participant in the jurispmdential conversation,
Dr Carlos Ignacio Massini Correas, and began to enjoy a second life in your
translation published here -as is we ll know n to you a ll- in 2000.
Authors have no uniqu ely reliab le insight into the motiv ating or
strategic idea s in their works. But their testim ony is adm issible as ev i-
dence, and so I ven ture to say one or tw o things about w hat I regard
point, first of all, to chapter XI .8 ( esp ecia lly fro m its se cond page on-
wards), discussing the scholastic d ebate about w heth er that impe rium
ow n free ly chosen act pertains to reason
act o f c hoi ce), as Aquinas contends, o r rather, as Gabri el Vas quez and
Francisco Suarez think, to will. On e cannot (i t seems t o m e) h ave r eally
reason and action, unless o ne can rea dily understand wh y XI.8 so firmly
his accused h im o f ineptness and futi lity in po stulating an imp erium o f
reason). The boo k, o f course, neg lects to exp lain a nd defe nd the reality
of free choice, simply taking it for granted; this passa ge is o ne of the
The gap was later filled, more or less, by the defe nce o f free choice in
Funda mental o f Ethics (1983) -wh ich also takes up the Wojtylan and
by the exp ositi on o f human deliberation , in t he footst eps of St Thomas,
in Aqui nas (1998).
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