Metaphysics In Law

meron Billson LJU4801

51605015

The idea of metaphysical beliefs stretches far back to the beginning of Greek philosophy and has grown and evolved over thousands of years. Many philosophers from the pre modern philosopher’s all the way through to the current day have expressed their personal ideas and rationalities towards trying to understand the unseen world that many believe exist around us. In this essay the understanding of what metaphysics is and the different views on it and its application to the law over the years will be looked at. Many philosophers who have been influential to the development of metaphysics will be looked at below and how their theories have been applied to the law through the ages.

Metaphysics is the concern

Is idea of realism was also related to metaphysics. This theory was that there are objects that exist separate to the world that the person perceives. His understanding was that every thing had a natural purpose (matter) and a goal that it’s striving to (form). In the case of law, Justice (the form) is used to transform laws (matter) into their real purpose to achieve justice. He distinguished between natural justice (the form) and conventional justice (human laws – the matter). Natural justice is universal and unchanging (the Form) while conventional justice is based on convention or agreement and can be changed (the matter). According to him there are two kinds of conventional justice, namely distributive and corrective justice. Distributive justice means that those who are equal should be treated equally and those who are not equal should be treated unequally. This is the kind of justice that is used when distributing wealth, honor and other assets of the community. Corrective justice, on the other hand, is the kind of justice used by courts to correct an imbalance that has occurred. This is used, for instance, where damage has occurred through a delict or breach of contract. Aristotle's ideas of the state, law and politics is closely related to his metaphysical belief that the essential purpose or task for human beings (the form) is to cultivate the virtues and practical common sense needed to live a good ethical

One being ethnophilosophy. It describes communal thought and collective thought, which through the African cultures were orally transferred from generation to the next. It relies on metaphysical assumptions and traditional African wisdom and tends to combine philosophy, mysticism and religion. Reason and critical analysis take a set back in this situation. In order to create a collective philosophy it does not distinguish between different African cultures and tends to look over the differences. There is also a very strong belief in ancestors and the dead in all African cultures. Many rituals are performed to make offers to the gods if something that was done could have angered them. This idea of natural justice runs back many thousands of years in African cultures. 


One of the biggest changes from the pre modern to early modern thinkers was the growth in science and the idea of individualism. This is already a step away from metaphysics as science only believes what can be proven or observed and individualism takes away the idea of the over all idea of natural justice for everyone and focuses more directly on each individual person. Isaac Newton leaps in scientific research change the ideals of legal philosophy. The world shifted from the unseen to what can be can be