What Makes an Ethical Account a Natural Law Ethical Account? Contemporary Ethics, Metaethics, and Normative Ethics

• Published in: Studies in Christian ethics 2024-05, Vol.37 (2), p.303-326
• Main Author: O’Connor, John D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0953-9468; 1745-5235
• DOI: 10.1177/09539468241233182

What makes ethical accounts natural law ethical is, I argue, commonly misrepresented in teaching within much of the philosophical academy. Yet those immersed in the field of natural law and ethics rarely give definitions/brief characterisations of what makes ethical accounts natural law ethical. I suggest theoretical reasons for the lack. I argue that bringing natural law into ethics is best understood as leading to theoretically unitary accounts, not simply collections of positions detachable from each other: an overlooked and significant point when defending natural law ethical accounts. My arguments throughout rely on the metaethical/normative ethical distinction, which is relatively little used in the natural law literature. I argue that the distinction helps clarify what is distinctive of natural law ethical accounts in general, especially to the secular contemporary philosophical academy, where appreciation of natural law ethical accounts is commonly appreciably lower than in philosophical contexts with a religious ethos.