lecture notes

Oliver Wendall Holmes had perhaps more influence on American jurisprudence than any other judge in the 20th century. He wrote that what we call law is simply "the majority vote of the nation that could lick all the others", nothing more.

The Supreme Court demonstrated his influence in writing the decision in Planned parenthood v casey : 1992: "at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life" Taken at face value, this is essentially the right to do anything.

But this is idea is challenged more frequently now, by natural law philosophers and even some sociologists, notably James Q. Wilson; in his book "the moral sentiments" he talks about "the existence of cross-cultural moral universals" which he says are "not strictly innate, developmentally inevitable."

And if you study our moral language, the moral law reveals itself to be a a presupposition of all moral debates. An example: the most secular moral theory is utilitarianism. the morally right action is the action that brings about the greatest possible total happiness. There are secular arguments against utilitarianism. one such argument is that the theory produces conclusions that violate some of our most deeply held moral intuitions. This argument stakes everything on the deeply held moral intution, i.e. moral intution. moral principles which we can't not know. But what is something that we can't not know, what is this moral intution but the law written on the heart.

the predominant tendency in our culture today: to deny the law written on the heart. no there isnt any natural law. there aren't any moral principles that are right for everyone.

colin turnbull [sp]: anthropologist, 1972, the ick tribe. conscience did not exist. everyone exploited everyone else. the ick proved there cannot be a law written on the heart. burnt heinna[sp]: later anthropologist, more fluent in tribal language, in 1985 said ick were not at all as turnbull had reported them. the ick were suffering great calamities, they werent lliving up to their own moral standards. margaret mead: famous, eager to prove sexual morality is culture. simoan culture was a paradise of free love; derek freeman proved her wrong. point being they haven't found a culture that has no knowledge of the fundamental moral law.

So - everyone knows moral law, not everyone knows the details, not everyone knows that he knows it.

thomas aquinas asked the question, "can the moral law be erased from the human heart?" he said the secondary principles can be totally erased; totally blotted out. (casuistry) the first moral principles can only be willfully misapplied, i.e., rationalizing, etc.