First Principles & Natural Law Part I

Summary

In this course of lectures, Professor Hadley Arkes seeks to recall the classic connection between law and morality. Law works by replacing personal choice and private judgment with a public rule enforced on everyone, which raises the question of whether there are in fact rights grounded in the very nature of human beings. Seeking the principles that form the groundwork of moral judgment, Arkes examines cases that take in the most vexing issues of our time: conscientious objection, the justifications for war and interventions abroad, the claims of "privacy," and the problem of abortion.