Natural Law Thought Reviewed

Natural law thought arising from the very "nature" of mankind claim~ the very necd of "accordance" in almost all asp(.'Ctsof this human enlightment to this nature. Therefore whatever "is" to be acknowlcdgcd through positivist understandings of observalion is to be chcckcd out once more in accordance to this nature to have some "value" (ought) of its own -yet again in natural patterns which bear wİthin itself anatural insight to the natural phenomena; and what naturallaw is actually the natural "insight" drawing the schen",s of understanding of this natural phenomena, withoul which we would be dwelling in either partially acknowledged positivisl tradilions of thought or utmost skepticism. In the historical background of this major thcme there hes the Aristotclian, Aquinan, Humean and finally Kclsenian points of view which we have endeavourro lo bring within an outlook of compositional unity in this artİele through John Finnis' modem comprehension of the theory yet mainly based on Aquinan concepts and process of reasoning. 42 • Ankara Üniversıtesi SBF Dergisi. 54-1 Natural Law Thought Revieved Natural law has been a major referee in the everlasting play of the human being on social arena under the guise of this and that urgent dressing again adressed to it by certain players of the time. Thus Friedmann is saying 'The history of natural thought is a ta le of the search of mankind for absolute justice and of its failure. Natural law has fulfilled many functions. Natural law has at different times been used to support any ideology." (Friedmann, 1967: 95-97, Ross, 1958: 258-262) So the first premise is the need and the accompanying function of a referee in continuum for the play to take action as well as its stopping line being drawn. From the ancient times on to our modern maybe post-modern Society, either conscientiously or sub-eonsciously humanityon the whole has searched for a referee and his decisive power in his own premature architecturing of an "artıfıcıal" universe being well aware of its lack of absolute effidency. if we look at in another context -yet pointing to the same epistemological basis-to Martin's evaluating Hart's theory (Hart, 1961: 195, Martin, 1987: 181-190) adding his own premises especially (Kl) to his, for anatural theory to evolve the