natural law
Other forms: natural laws
Natural law is a philosophy that says people instinctively understand right and wrong, outside of rules established and enforced by a society. It also states that all humans have basic rights.
The term natural law comes from the idea that nature itself is responsible for the basic values all people have, and that we're born essentially knowing how to behave ethically. The philosophy also includes the notion that all human beings have inherent rights and should never have to rely on government to grant us those rights. Natural law states that everyone has the right to freedom, life, equality, and privacy, among many others.
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a rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human societysynonyms: lawtypes:divine lawa law that is believed to come directly from Godprinciplea basic truth or law or assumptionsound lawa law describing sound changes in the history of a languagedictatea guiding principlebasic principle, basics, bedrock, fundamental principle, fundamentalsprinciples from which other truths can be derivedlogicthe principles that guide reasoning within a given field or situationpleasure principle, pleasure-pain principle, pleasure-unpleasure principle(psychoanalysis) the governing principle of the id; the principle that an infant seeks gratification and fails to distinguish fantasy from realityreality principle(psychoanalysis) the governing principle of the ego; the principle that as a child grows it becomes aware of the real environment and the need to accommodate to itinsurrectionismthe principle of revolt against constituted authorityconservation(physics) the maintenance of a certain quantities unchanged during chemical reactions or physical transformationsGrimm's lawa sound law relating German consonants and consonants in other Indo-European languagesVerner's lawa qualification of Grimm's lawTaothe ultimate principle of the universetype of:concept, conception, constructan abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances
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Vocabulary lists containing natural law
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