Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'hugo grotius'

April 29, 2026

The Millennia-Long History of American Liberty

One of the first hurdles in designing a course is assigning readings. Digital databases, book scanning, and ebooks have empowered teachers to assemble any combination of chapters, journals, and primary sources, but having so many choices can be as paralyzing as it is liberating. Continue Reading...
March 18, 2026

Just War Theory Yesterday and Today

For an ancient people, the Romans were atypical in their concern about the moral justification of their wars. Conquest, they believed, was at least potentially nefas (“wicked”) and risked the community’s suffering religious pollution and divine disapprobation. Continue Reading...
August 27, 2025

How Robert George Applies Natural Law to Public Policy

“Contrary to what many influential voices in our culture, politics, and even our institutions of higher education would have you believe, the truth about even the most controversial matters can be objectively known, and cannot be altered by one’s subjective feelings or ‘lived experiences.’” Continue Reading...
August 26, 2025

Can the Secular Point to the Transcendent?

It was once considered obvious, at least to those in the know, that religion and other superstitions would fade as science made God unnecessary, implausible, and eventually ridiculous. Primitive humans saw gods lurking everywhere because of their ignorance of natural causes, perhaps, and the need for God to fill in the “gaps” of our explanations would in principle disappear. Continue Reading...
March 01, 2012

Hugo Grotius vs. ObamaCare

In the seventeenth-century, the Dutch lawyer, magistrate, and scholar Hugo Grotius advanced Protestant natural-law thinking by grounding it in human nature rather than in the divine commands of God. As he claimed, “the mother of right—that is, of natural law—is human nature.” Continue Reading...