M . K AT H E R I N E C O L L I N S
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T H E M O RA LI T Y O F LA N G UAG E
The Morality of Language: A Wilsonian Proof for the Existence of Higher Law Mary Katherine Collins
What laws? I never heard it was Zeus Who made that announcement, And it wasn’t justice, either. The gods below Didn’t lay down that law for human use. And I never thought your announcements Could give you—a mere human being— Power to trample the gods’ unfailing, Unwritten laws. These laws weren’t made now Or yesterday. They live for all time, And no one knows when they came into the light. No man could frighten me into taking on The gods’ penalty for breaking such a law.1
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atural law has been one of the most controversial and widely discussed topics since the very beginning of philosophical tradition. From Plato’s and Socrates’ insistence upon respecting higher law, to Blackstone’s common law definitions, to Kant’s and Nietzsche’s determination to throw out God and eternal law altogether, the conversation spans thousands of years and dozens of relevant dimensions. While at times referred to by near synonyms such as “common law,” “eternal law,” “higher law,” or “law of nature,” the undertones of the term 1.
Sophocles, Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Bos-
ton: Mariner Books, 2002), lines 450-460.
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