The tradition holding that law's source-based character, its dependence on social facts such as legislation and custom, can still create sound reasons for action and genuine moral obligations, because law properly made treats human persons as ends in themselves and serves as a remedy against anarchy and tyranny. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy traces its roots to Plato and Aristotle and, above all, to Thomas Aquinas, whose systematic medieval statement of the theory remains its classical reference point.
Facts
Disputed
Start YearNatural law theory has no single founding date or founder; its own cited SEP entry traces the tradition to its earliest and most foundational texts, Plato's Gorgias, Republic and Laws and Aristotle's Politics, all from the fourth century BCE, without naming one founding moment. -350 approximates that period rather than marking a discrete founding event. Founded DateSourced to the subject's own accountThe DATE column cannot hold the -350 BCE start-year already on record for Plato and Aristotle's foundational texts (this entity's own cited SEP Natural Law Theories, Section 1.2). This instead reuses thomism's own founded-date citation: Aquinas, the classic natural law theorist SEP names by name, began his systematic natural-law treatment in the Summa Theologiae at the Santa Sabina studium in 1265. Classification
TraditionSourced to the subject's own account RegionWestern Europe (Greece, Rome, medieval Christendom) 2 Natural Law Theory
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Source Natural Law Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Source Natural Law Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Source Natural Law Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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Open Questions
Source Natural Law Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Sources
1. Thomas Aquinas (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWikipedia, 'Thomas Aquinas,' Naples, Orvieto, Rome (1259-1268) sectionQuote, Wikipedia, 'Thomas Aquinas,' Naples, Orvieto, Rome (1259-1268) section
While at the Santa Sabina studium provinciale, Thomas began his most famous work, the Summa Theologiae.
2. Natural Law Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationSection 1.5
Though they certainly should be, and be presumed to have been, "derived from natural law", they have their legal force only from their part in this posited system.
Section 1.2, Political authority as remedy for anarchy, injustice and impoverishment
The texts that are earliest (e.g., the Platonic or pseudo-Platonic Minos: Lewis 2006) and most foundational (e.g., Plato's Gorgias, Republic and Laws, and Aristotle's Politics) in the tradition of natural law theory
- Associated With: Aristotle
- Associated With: Hugo Grotius
- Open Questions: When Did Natural Law Theory Originate?
Associated With: Thomas Aquinas, Section 1.1.1, Why natural law? Naturalistic fallacy?
Aquinas is particularly clear and explicit that in this context, 'natural' is predicated of something (say, a law, or a virtue) only when and because that of which it is predicated is in line with reason.
View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
When Did Natural Law Theory Originate?
The Stanford Encyclopedia own Natural Law Theories entry, re-fetched 2026-09-11, names Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics as early sources and treats Aquinas as the tradition classical systematizer, but states no single founding moment or year for natural law theory as a named tradition.
What would resolve this A historiographical account defending one specific figure, text or period as the tradition actual point of origin, rather than treating natural law as a gradual convergence of independently argued classical and medieval sources.
History of philosophyNatural Law Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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