ABSTRACT
The terms “natural law” and “natural rights” cover a variety of theories most of which are significantly different from each other and often incompatible. It is as well to state from the outset what this chapter will not be considering. We will not examine what is sometimes called the “voluntarist” tradition of natural law, reaching back to William of Ockham (c.1288-1348), according to which the laws of nature that ground morality emanate directly from an act or acts of will. For Ockham it was the will of God, who is perfectly free to mandate any system of moral laws He sees fit. For later voluntarists such as Hobbes (1588-1679) and Pufendorf (1632-94), the emphasis was on the human will as the originator of all moral laws beyond the minimal natural law enjoined by God for humans to live together in peaceful society.
