Diversity in Methodology

This spring at the Blue Ridge Center, we are hosting a weekly reading group on the Natural Law Tradition, in which students have the opportunity to engage with thinkers such as Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and John Finnis. At the Blue Ridge Center, we place an emphasis on providing resources for students to engage with material that they might not otherwise encounter in their regular coursework.

However, this forces the question: wouldn’t the average student engage with Aristotle in a course on ethics, or Thomas Aquinas in a course on metaphysics? Doesn’t Natural Law receive at least an overview in most courses on legal theory? What “gap”, so to speak, is this group filling? 

The answer is that, yes, the few students who study philosophy or religion will be well-acquainted with Thomas Aquinas. Likewise, most students in their required ethics course will recognize Aristotle as a progenitor of Virtue Ethics. Finally, any undergraduate course on legal theory or legal philosophy will include at least one reading on Natural Law. The “gap”, then, has as much to do with form as it does content - although our students have also read from David Novak and John Finnis, among other influential contemporary thinkers who are unlikely to be encountered in regular coursework. The value of studying Natural Law, especially for our many pre-law students, should be obvious, given that conceptions of Natural Law form the backdrop for much of the classical Western legal tradition. 

One important difference between the Blue Ridge Natural Law group and potential exposure to Natural Law ideas in a general curriculum is that within the Blue Ridge reading group, we are engaging with the Natural Law Tradition - with a capital “T”. That is, we are not reading Aristotle, Aquinas, Finnis, and others as independent  and autonomous thinkers, but as partners in a dialogue stretching over the centuries - a dialogue that features common themes and agreements, but also diversity and contention. Such dynamism constitutes the very essence of an intellectual tradition. There is great value in digging into any tradition qua that tradition, recognizing that the whole is often greater than its many parts. Any exposure to these thinkers is good, but the lack of continuity between these thinkers leaves students with a limited and self-centered framework for understanding the ideas.

Here at the Blue Ridge Center, we hope to inculcate in our students an appreciation for the dynamic interplay of intellectual life - a life that is constituted by bold exploration, humble engagement, and free, open discourse. We hope that our students also come away with a recognition that their place at UVA exists within a great conversation and are encouraged to lend their voices to it.