On the Self-evidence of Natural Law of Practical Reason
Facing the impact of the modem fact-value dichotomy on natural law theory,the con-temporary natural law jurist John Finnis tried to overcome the epistemological dilemma with the self-evi-dence of natural law.However,the concept of self-evidence of natural law proposed by Finnis not only inherits the tradition of self-evidence of Thomas Aquinas,the model natural jurist of the Middle Ages,but also includes the concept of self-evidence of Hilbert's geometric axioms,both of which are opposed to each other from the standpoint of metaphysical realism.This makes Finnis'concept of self-evidence of natural law face the tension between ontological realism and non-realism,and his response to the di-chotomy of fact and value and his construction of natural law ethics are therefore questioned.A self-con-sistent understanding of the self-evidence of natural law can be derived from the identity of judgments of theoretical reason and practical reason.A natural law principle is derivable as a judgment of theoretical reason,but underived and self-evident as a judgment of practical reason.This understanding also pro-vides a possibility of bridging the gap between fact and value.
epistemology of natural lawself-evidencefact-value dichotomypractical reasonhuman nature