Law Philosophers Assignment
He was a Greek philosopher who lived in Stagira in north Greece. He was the son of Nichomachus, Aristotle studied medicine and then in 367 BCE he was then sent to Athens to study philosophy. He has stayed and studied at Plato’s academy until 347 BCE, he had a different idea then Plato. Aristotle believed “The ‘just’ therefore means that which is lawful and that which is equal or fair”(Morris, 1981) When Plato had died Aristotle was not the head of Plato’s Academy.
Aristotle left Athens he went travelling maybe studying in Turkey, which used to be called Asia Minor. In 338 he returned back to Macedonian and had tutored Alexander the Great, later Alexander the Great had taken over Athens, Aristotle had returned to Athens to setup his own school called Lyceum. After Alexander the Great passed away Athens attacked Macedonian and Aristotle political situation became risky. He fled away and went to Eubroea where he has later passed away in 322 B. C. E. Aristotle believed in egalitarian society were he believed that everyone should share equally.
He believed that if people are unequal they may be “allotted unequal shares” (Morris 1981). Thomas Aquinas was born in Lombardy, Italy in 1225 and later passed away in 1274 he lived only 49 years. He was born in his family’s castle in the kingdom of Naples, he had eight siblings and he was the youngest of them all. At the age of five he had been drawn into a school at Montecassino. He was later transferred to University of Naples. He came into contact with Aristotle, and became a Dominican over the disputes of his family and then he headed north to study.
Briefly in Paris, and then he went onto a different school called Cologne were he was with Albert the Great, he later studied technology at the University of Paris; he became an expert in philosophy and in other works of Aristotle. He believed that “Law is chiefly ordained to the common good” and intention of lawmaker should be to “lead man to virtue” (Our Legal Heritage, 92) He did not assume that law makes people good, but rather “ that man obeys a law due to him being good”(Philosophers of Law, Note) Noam Chomsky is born on December 7th, 928 in Philadelphia he was Jewish born philosopher who had earned his PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Since 1955 he was a professor at MlT and had made great theories on human linguistic ability. Chomsky had a little brother named David; his family was a middle class family. Noam Chomsky grew up watching officers beat women in front of a textile pile. His mother Elise Chomsky was an active radical politic in the 1930’s his father William Chomsky who was a Russian Jewish Immigrant. Chomsky at the age of ten years old had written a newspaper editorial on the rise of fascism in Europe.
He believes that law primarily serves those in power. Cooperation between the rich class and of citizens and lawmakers to make laws that maintain the statuesque and wealth and power of the rich. Aristotle would evaluate Canadian Law is he would like how we have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms he would like section 15 subsection (1) in the Charter which is Equality Rights “every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law” Constitution Act, 1982).
This agrees with Aristotle because he also said that everyone is equal and should be treated the same. Also he would agree on section 7 of the Charter Legal Rights “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security”(Constitution Act, 1982). Aristotle would agree with this because it shows that everyone has the equal rights for life and humanity. He would agree that taxing the wealthy would be good because it lessens the chance of them overruling.
He believes that everyone should be treated equally, so in Canadian law the same cases can’t be treated the same way as other. He would believe that Canadian law would be a problem because he wants everyone to be treated the same. He would also disagree with welfare because it takes away our money that we earned by working hard for. He would also have a problem with one ruler getting elected because of false information being used to be a ruler of a country. Aristotle would believe that our laws our good and it could be bad at the same time.
Thomas Aquinas would believe that the Canadian law would improve or expand on his theories of people. In section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms “the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”(Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982). He would agree with this because it shows that man can be free but it is up to them if they want to obey the law.
It is basically stating Aquinas theory “that man obeys a law due to him being good” it is a guideline to say you are free but remember there are laws if you do something wrong. He would disagree with Canada’s legal system because he was a big believer in his faith, which was Christianity he would agree much on the ten commandments because they show one ruler and they say that you can’t do this or that so they are laws that over rule men. Which didn’t agree with his theory that men obey law and law doesn’t obey men.
Noam Chomsky would evaluate Canadian Law as positive and negative thing because it shows that media is controlled by the government and also by the wealthy. Noam Chomsky believed that media only benefits the elite class. He believes that the rich should get richer and the poor get poorer. Under section 15 sub section 1 “equal benefit of the law without discrimination” basically Noam Chomsky would agree with this because it shows that everyone should be treated the same but don’t discriminate if you are poor or rich.
Chomsky believes that the media only benefits with the elite class but in Canadian Law he might disagree freedom of speech because the media is controlled by the rich and whatever the rich say goes it could be false information, but with freedom of speech you can go to people and spread the word. Everyone has the right to speak and also he might disagree with the Canadian government for spending money funding Iraq and other countries. Noam Chomsky a 20th and 21st century philosopher he is still alive so he can compare the difference between his theories and the Canadian Law.
References
- Citations Blair, A. , Ryan Elliott, K. , Manning, B. , & Mossuto, M. (2004).
- Canadian and international law. Canada: Oxford University Press. McGilvray James, A. (1994).
- Noam chomsky . Retrieved from http://www. biography. com/people/noam-chomsky-37616 McInerny, R. (Sept, 2009 30).
- Metaphysics research lab, csli, stanford university. Retrieved from http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/aquinas/ Waggone , B. (2000, June 09).
- University of california museum of paleontology. Retrieved from http://www. ucmp. berkeley. edu/history/aristotle. html
