Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
TO LEGAL PHILOSOPHY
I.

LAW

- Rule of conduct, recognized by custom or by formal enactment,

which the community considers as binding upon its members.
- STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPY:
Complex social Phenomenon and one of the most intricate
aspects of human culture.
- is normative in that it guides human conduct.
- Not only the source of normative conduct for there is also;
1. Religion
2. Morality
3. Custom
4. Convention
- Certainly connected with the other sources of normative
behavior but at the same time it is distinct from them.
- In fact religion, morality, equity, custom and societal
conventions are among the sources of law.
- Law from the Old English lagu (pl. laga) means something laid
down or fixed.
- Old Germanic lagan means: put or lay.
- Legal comes from latin legalis, where lex means law.
LEX TERRAE-law of the land
LEX FORI- law of the forum or court
LEX LOCI- law of the place
LEX MERCATORIA- law or custom of merchants
o CICERO law as natural force the highest reason one
Implanted in nature, which commands what
ought to be done and forbids the opposite.
It is the mind and reason of the intelligent man
whose natural function is to command right
and forbid the wrongdoing.
o AQUINAS law is a rule and measure of human acts
pertaining to reason.
-law is all those things that are inclined to
something.
-for the true will to be lawful it has to be in
accord with reason.
-if the will of the sovereign would have the
force of law it must be under the command of
reason, otherwise the sovereigns will would
savor of lawlessness rather than of law.

- SUPREME COURT- rule established to guide our actions, with no

Binding effect until it is enacted.
-thus it has no application to past times but only
to future time.
GENERAL/ABSTRACT SENSE

SPECIFIC/CONCRETE SENSE

II.
III.

Law is the science of moral laws

founded on the rational nature of
man that governs his free activity
for the realization of individual and
societal ends of life.
It is a rule of conduct, just
obligatory, formulated by legitimate
power for common observance
and benefit.

DISSATISFACTION WITH THE LAW? P.3-4

PHILOSOPHY
-means love of wisdom or the search for truth.
-comes from GREEK term philosophia
-philosophia is derived from philos , love or philia, friendship,
affection, affinity for, attracted towards and Sophos a sage ,
a wise one, or Sophia, wisdom, knowledge, skill ,
intelligence.
-it is the search for reality and truth of things.
-it seeks to discover the essence, nature and foundation of
things, as opposed to their appearance.
-endeavors to understand fundamental truths about people,
the world, the relationship of people to the world and of the
people to one another.
o PYTHAGORAS (580 B. C.- 500 B.C.)
-first to call himself philosophos
-sophia meant the knownledge of the underlying
reasons or causes for things as they appear to us.
-this means to get to know the reality or essence of
a thing beyond its common or day-to-day
appearance.
-Philosophy is the search for meaning.
o BROWNINGS FRA LIPPO LIPPI: insists that life
has meaning, and to find it is my meat and drink.
-Philosophys task and mission to peel the multifarious layers
concealing lifes true aims, and for a thoughtful person this need
be done on a day by day not minute by minute basis.
-Philosophers are the Mityas of the world who constantly seek
to understand since they are those who dont want, millions, but
an answer to their questions.

a.
b.
c.
d.

o FR. RANHILIO AQUINO: the knowledge (scienta) of

things by their ultimate causes or reasons (per
ultimas causas vel rationes)
Philosophy deals with the final causes, the ultimate causae,
or the prima pricipia that is something that deals with
fundamental beginnings, first principles and basic elements.
That which provides the person with a map that gives
coherence to his activities and that makes of human life a
meaningful whole.
Something that uncovers the meaning of phenomena.
Endeavor which gives a logical account of the way we use
our terms, which is within the realm of analytic philosophy.

-PHENOMENA- mean something that which appears, that

which can be gleaned by the senses but whose inner meaning
and reality remain concealed.
o SOCRATES- no small matter but how we ought to
live. And living rightly is to exercise knowledge and
reason.
o KOLAK AND MARTIN- philosophy is an axe. In its
attempt to deeper levels of understanding, it must
continually question everything we believe in.
o DURANT- if poetry reveals to us the beauty our
untaught eyes have missed, and philosophy gives
us the wisdom to understand and forgive, it is
enough, and more than the worlds wealth.
-LEGAL PHILOSOPHY (Jurisprudence)- is a systematic study
that seeks to understand the;
a. nature and essence of law
b. its definition and elements
c. sources of authority
d. various applications and development
e. its role in society
-Concerns