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Article: On the Intelligibility of Political Philosophy.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- September 9, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE NEWS that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas subscribes to the doctrine of natural law has been received with something like alarm by liberals and even a few conservatives. The former suspect an archaic, vaguely medieval approach to law that would surely reverse their great gains in the last few decades. The latter are wary of the "judicial activism" that a rigorous adherence to natural law would seem to require.
Among scholars of the natural-law tradition, one of the most thoughtful was the late Fr. Charles N. R. McCoy. His often profound insights are contained in his 1963 The Structure of Political Thought and in a recent collection of essays, On the ...