Taitslin, Anna --- "Stoic natural law as Right Reason" [2019] ELECD 2203; in Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance (eds), "Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 31

Book Title: Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory

Editor(s): Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Stoic natural law as Right Reason

Author(s): Taitslin, Anna

Number of pages: 26

Abstract/Description:

Anna Taitslin’s chapter explores Stoic understandings of natural law. She argues that the core of the Stoic legacy for natural law theory lies in the notion of natural law as ‘Right Reason’. Furthermore, the Stoic idea of Right Reason changed significantly between the early and late Stoic thinkers. Early Stoic authors, such as Zeno and Chrysippus, identified Right Reason with the natural causality of the universe; the role of reason was merely to assent to what fate had already ordained. However, later Stoics, such as Panaetius and Posidonius, identified Right Reason with participation in a distinctively human good, producing a greater emphasis on the role of human rationality in discerning right actions and overcoming the corrupting influence of the passions. This more rationalistic conception of natural law influenced Roman authors, such as Seneca and Cicero. It also paved the way for the Christian view of natural law as the universal law of God, grasped naturally by humans before the Fall and afterwards known through God’s Commandments.