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Chapter 5 - Justice and Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

Jan Maximilian Robitzsch
Jan Maximilian Robitzsch
Affiliation:
Universität Greifswald
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Summary

Modern discussions of Epicureanism often use the descriptions “legal positivism” and “natural law theory” without providing clear definitions of what is meant by these terms. This chapter remedies this deficiency by characterizing the Epicurean theory of justice and law from the perspective of contemporary philosophy of law. The first section develops a clear conceptual framework by distinguishing between different theses that characterize a view as leaning more toward legal positivism or natural law theory. The second section then tests Epicurean theory against these theses, concluding that even if the Epicurean account has some legal positivist leanings, it is overall closer to a kind of natural law theory.

Keywords

EpicurusEpicureanismjusticelawlegal positivismnatural law theory
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Chapter
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Epicurean Justice
Nature, Agreement, and Virtue
 , pp. 118 - 127
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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