Reason, Morality, and Law The Philosophy of John Finnis

This volume gathers leading moral, legal, and political philosophers alongside theologians to examine John Finnis' work. The book offers the first sustained critical study of Finnis' contribution across the philosophy of rationality, legal and political philosophy, and theology. It includes a substantial response from Finnis himself in which he defends and develops his ideas.

John Keown holds the Rose Kennedy Chair in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. Having graduated in law from Cambridge he took a doctorate at Oxford, under the supervision of John Finnis. Before his election to the Kennedy Chair he taught the law and ethics of medicine in the Faculty of Law at Cambridge, where he was a Fellow of Queens' College and of Churchill College. Professor Keown has written widely in the field of the law and ethics of medicine. His latest book is The Law and Ethics of Medicine (OUP, 2012).

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. He holds a D.Phil from Oxford, where he studied under John Finnis and Joseph Raz. He is the author of numerous books, including Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality, and In Defence of Natural Law.

Editor's Preface
Introduction: The Achievement of John Finnis, Robert P. George
Reasons, Goods, and Principles
1. Value: A Menu of Questions, Joseph Raz
2. Finnis on Well-being, Roger Crisp
3. Reasoning about the Human Good, and the Role of the Public Philosopher, John Haldane
4. On the Most Fundamental Principle of Morality, Joseph Boyle
5. What is Natural Law Like?, Jeremy Waldron
Intentions in Action
6. Intention and Side-effects: John Finnis and Elizabeth Anscombe, Luke Gormally
7. Intention and Side-effects: The mens rea for Murder, Anthony Kenny
8. John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action, Kevin L. Flannery SJ
9. On Moral Philosophy and Kinds of Human Actions, Cristobel Orrego
Justice, Rights, and Wrongdoing
10. Finnis on Justice, John Gardner
11. Retributivism in the Spirit of Finnis, Matthew H. Kramer
12. The Nature of Limited Government, Leslie Green
13. Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism, Christopher Tollefsen
14. "Lawful mercy" in Measure for Measure, Jacqueline Tasioulas and John Tasioulas
15. The Natural Law Position on the Basis for Being a Subject of Rights, Patrick Lee
16. Constitutional and Other Persons, Gerard V. Bradley
17. Bioethics after Finnis, Anthony Fisher OP
18. A New Father for Medical Law, John Keown
Philosophy of Law
19. Value, Practice, and Idea, N.E. Simmonds
20. The Irony of Law, Timothy Endicott
21. Ideas of Easy Virtue, Timothy Macklem
22. Law and its Theory: A Question of Priorities, Julie Dickson
23. Finnis on Legal and Moral Obligation, Maris Köpcke Tinturé
24. Constitutional Principle in the Laws of the Commonwealth, Richard Ekins
25. Intention and the Allocation of Risk, Neil M. Gorsuch
Philosophy, Religion, and Public Reasons
26. The Right to Religious Liberty and the Coercion of Belief: A Note on Dignitatis Humanae, Thomas Pink
27. Natural Law and the Transcendent Source of Human Fulfillment, Germain Grisez
Reflections and Responses
28. Responses, John Finnis
Bibliography of the Published Works of John Finnis