The Meaning of Law

• In ordinary life, we recognize two kinds of laws: political laws and laws of nature.

• Political laws:

  • Made by a sovereign government for all subjects or a certain class.

  • Subjects may disobey, but disobedience incurs punishment; without punishment, law loses authority.

  • Vary from country to country and over time; new circumstances (e.g., war) create new laws.

  • Some deal with morality (e.g., murder forbidden by both political and moral laws).

• Laws of nature (scientific laws):

  • Universal statements of fact describing relations between events (e.g., law of gravitation).

  • Differ from political laws as statements of fact, not commands; cannot be disobeyed if valid.

  • Cannot be changed, though applications may vary under different conditions.

  • Like political laws, they have universal reference: political laws apply to all in a group, scientific laws apply to all objects/events of a kind.

  • Term “law” may originate from belief they were God’s commands for the universe.

• Range of application differs in both law types:

  • Political: Some apply indiscriminately (e.g., murder laws), others selectively (e.g., income-tax laws).

  • Scientific:

    • Universal laws (unconditional, e.g., gravitation)

    • Hypothetical laws (conditional, e.g., Malthusian population law under certain historical conditions)

• Kant: Introduced hypothetical imperative – a law resembling commands more than factual statements.

  • Example: Builder obeys rules depending on materials and object (permanent cathedral vs. temporary shelter).

  • Can be disobeyed, but then the intended outcome is not achieved.

  • Requires consideration of facts of nature (e.g., material properties).

  • Essentially a scientific law of limited kind: statement of means to achieve a certain end or cause producing an effect.

  • Appearance of command arises from someone’s wish or order (builder or customer).

  • Such laws are subordinate imperatives, obeyed derivatively because another command exists.

  • Accepting the obligation to build entails accepting obligations dictated by laws of architecture.

  • In economics, we find examples of three kinds of laws: scientific, political, and hypothetical/normative.

  • Economics contains scientific laws, mostly hypothetical, holding only under certain conditions, e.g., law of supply and demand—price rises with increased demand or decreased supply.

  • Economics also involves political laws, such as government regulations controlling prices and rents.

  • It provides rules, or subordinate imperatives, e.g., guidelines to increase national wealth.

  • Some writers call these hypothetical imperatives or normative laws, but others reserve normative law for rules holding universally for all people.

  • Dominant imperatives are universal; subordinate imperatives are instrumental to them.

  • Some argue no universal imperatives exist; people follow subordinate imperatives only to achieve desired outcomes or due to compulsion.

  • Ethics and religion are the most likely sources of categorical imperatives or universal rules.

  • Attempts to equate aesthetics or logic with ethics/religion are questionable; obligations in these areas are often moral, not aesthetic/logical.

  • Laws of religion are harder to classify; often seen as political commands of God rather than moral laws.

  • Kant distinguished three kinds of normative laws (imperatives):

    • Hypothetical imperative: Holds for specific groups pursuing particular ends, e.g., laws of architecture.

    • Assertorial imperative: Universally applicable conditional rules based on ends all naturally seek, e.g., happiness; many moral laws are seen as assertorial.

    • Categorical imperative: Holds unconditionally and universally; the moral law is the only example.

  • Moral laws do not depend on outcomes, rejecting teleological ethics.

  • Kant: “Nothing is good without qualification except a good will”; other goodness is conditional and hypothetical.

  • Three remarks on Kant’s categorical imperative:

    • The term imperative implies a command, possibly divine; it emphasizes obligatoriness, like legal authority.

    • Challenge: understanding how a good will acts or applies the categorical imperative to specific decisions.

    • Moral law is obligatory only for rational beings, so it is conditional on being apprehended by a rational mind; Kant noted it must be self-imposed.