THE NEW FEDERALIST May 27, 1988 Page 8

American Almanac

Leibniz: Agape Embodies Natural Law

by Lawrence Freeman

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, in a contemporary woodcut.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was one of the greatest universal thinkers the human race ever produced. He was a consummate genius during a lifetime which spanned the mid-seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He made major contributions in epistemology and philosophy as well as in many individual fields of knowledge including physics, mathematics, economics, engineering, history, and law.

Although qualified as the equivalent of a lawyer, Leibniz's contributions in law were in advancing the concept of Natural Law. Leibniz enriched the understanding of Natural Law (an area of law that is given little thought today), building on the contributions of Nicholas of Cusa, Hugo Grotius, and von Pufendorf. All of Leibniz's philosophy develops from his fundamental

outlook, that man's essential goodness, divinely given to him, is expressed in its highest form by the notion of Christian charity.

This is so fundamental to all of Leibniz's contributions, that we could not hope to understand any part of his life's work without first understanding this.

Refuting the Bestialist Thomas Hobbes

Leibniz, in developing his conception of Natural Law, was forced to deal with Thomas Hobbes' completely degraded and bestial view of the human species. Hobbes, an early contemporary of Leibniz, explicitly states these views in his infamous book Leviathan. Here Hobbes boldly states that, from inception, all human beings are in a constant state of war of each against all.

Ruled only by unbridled passions and emotions, man in this state barely exhibits any human qualities and instead generally displays the characteris-tics of a talking beast. This is man in a state ruled by eros. Nominally eros is equated with love, but in truth it is only erotic love, the same emotion that drives lust, passion, rage, greed, and similar degraded desires that fuel Hobbesian man's war of each against all. Hobbes says in Leviathan, "To this war of every man against every man, this is also consequent: that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have no place."

According to Hobbes' world view, the only way mankind can survive this condition is by establishing order through a more brutal force, a stronger power, a supreme authority, that can impose its dictatorial will over the mass of warring individuals. In this state, the only way to bring peace, so as to enable society to exist, is by instilling the fear of death in each individual.

This body of authority, which Hobbes calls the Commonwealth, is brought into existence to impose the necessary force to restrain the so-called natural passions of man. In this Commonwealth, awesome power is given to one individual, a tyrannical monarch who rules by force, to constrain the popula-tion from killing itself off. There are no real laws except the law of force.

For Hobbesian man, the notion of justice is absent and freedom is replaced by the absolute rights of the individual ruled by eros to commit criminal and sadistic acts against others—except those outlawed by the more powerful and brutal monarch.

Leibniz attacks the heart of the matter—Hobbes' notion of man's relationship to God. Hobbes' God is an unlovable tyrant who dictates without reason and only through force. This God rules with, and for, absolute power devoid of Goodness and Love, over a population of unhappy creatures he created to live in misery and anarchy. This is not the same Creator we know in Judeo-Christian culture, but is rather a force of pure evil.

In the appendices of Leibniz's most well-known book, the Theodicy, he says in refutation of Hobbes,

After all, if God does not intend the good of intelligent creatures, if he has no other principles of justice than his power alone, which makes him produce arbitrarily that which chance presents to him, or by ne-cessity all that which is possible, without the intervention of choice founded on the good, how can he make himself worthy of love? It is therefore the doctrine either of blind power or of arbitrary power, which destroys piety: for one destroys the intelligent principle of the providence of God, the other attributes to him actions which are appropriate to the evil principle.

In this, Leibniz asserts that, without man's love of God—that God who created man with reason—and without love of God's creation of intelligent creatures, there can be no law. No law based on a just moral code can exist, but only a law of arbitrariness, a law which serves only to delimit the power of eros so man can survive in his Hobbesian, bestial state. This view of law, and God the law-giver, is contrary to every principle of Christianity. In the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, love of God and man is inextricably linked to Natural Law: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hangs all law and the prophets" (XXII:37-40.).

Raphael's The Holy Family of the Lamb

In this version of the theme of the "Holy Family in a Landscape" which he painted over and over during the first decade of the 16th century, Raphael composes interlocking gestures and glances to evoke the concept of "agape." While every figure is in motion, the picture has great stability because this motion rotates around Joseph's staff. The Virgin Mary encourages the Christ Child to develop by his play with the Lamb, which stands for His future sacrifice. As Mary watches Christ, Christ turns to look upward into the eyes of St. Joseph, who gazes past the mother to the Child, closing the circle of the three figures. Thus Raphael endows an image of loving relationships in a human family, with the higher meaning of the divine mission of Christ, differently understood by each member of the group. This painting is in Madrid's Prado Museum.

Leibniz's View of Natural Law

When Leibniz says, "Natural law is that which preserves or promotes natural societies," he is clearly speaking of a conception of law that encompasses far more than what we know as civil or constitutional law.

Leibniz's conception of natural law comprehends the following. Societies are preserved through advances in technologically vectored economic progress. With man's divinely given powers of creative reason comes man's responsibility to increasingly perfect his knowledge of the lawfulness of the universe, a process which leads to new great scientific discoveries. The continual progressive advancement of society through successive discoveries in understanding the laws of the universe brings man into closer agreement with the lawfulness of the universe. Man's ability to constantly reorganize his behavior in the physical universe in an improved manner, is his uniquely human quality, and is possessed by man alone.

If we agree that the universe follows a lawful path of development, and if we agree that it is susceptible to be understood less imperfectly over time, and if we agree that the creative functions of the human mind are uniquely capable of understanding this lawfulness through successive scientific discoveries, then we understand the broad implications of Leibniz's statement on Natural Law. The history of the development of the human species over several hundred thousand years provides the scientific proof of the existence of Natural Law.

Since Natural Law is acted upon and acts on human beings in a unique way, it is appropriate to examine the questions of what, under Natural Law, should be man's relationship to man, and man and society's relationship to the continuous process of creation.

Agape and Natural Law

In his Codex Iuris Gentium, Leibniz says, "The doctrine of law, taken from nature's strict confines, presents an immense field of study. But the notions of law and justice, even after having been treated by so many illustrious authors, have not been made sufficiently clear."

For Leibniz, justice takes on a unique meaning: "Charity which follows the dictates of wisdom." Charity, in this context, has nothing to do with the common, everyday notion of charity as a liberal handout to the needy. Clearly, if Leibniz were referring to that notion of charity, his notion of

justice would have no real content. The notion of charity that is being dis-cussed, is the biblical notion of charity derived from the Greek word agape. The meaning of charity-agape refers to divine love of God for man, human love of man for God, and the love of man for his fellow man, mediated through his love of God.

Leibniz defines it thus:

Charity is a universal benevolence and benevolence the habit of lov-ing or of willing the good. Love then signifies rejoicing in the happi-ness of another, or, what is the same thing, converting the happiness of another into one's own. With this is resolved the difficult question, of great moment in theology as well: in what way disinterested love is possible, independent of hope, fear and of regard for any question of utility. In truth, the happiness of those whose happiness pleases us turns into our own happiness, since the things which please us are desired for their own sake. And since the contemplation of the beauti-ful is pleasant in itself, and a painting of Raphael affects a sensitive person who understands it, although it brings him no material gain, so that he keeps it in his mind's eye, as the image of happiness, this affection passes over into pure love. But the divine love excels all other loves, because God can be loved with the greatest result, since nothing is happier that God, and nothing more beautiful or more worthy of happiness can be conceived. And since He possesses supreme power and supreme wisdom, His happiness does not simply become ours if we are wise: that is, if we love him, but even creates ours. But since wisdom ought to guide charity, it will be necessary to define it wisdom. I believe that we can best render the concept that men have of it, if we say that wisdom is nothing but the science of happiness itself.

Without this notion of charity, Natural Law cannot be efficiently compre-hended. And it is this notion, charity-agape, that subsumes international law among nations, constitutional law, and civil law.

Leibniz establishes three degrees of law. The lowest degree is ius strictum, which means letter of the law or strict right. The next higher level is charity, but in a more narrow sense of the term than previously discussed. The high-est level is piety or moral excellence.

These three levels of law correspond to three notions of legal rights. The first, lowest level corresponds to the restriction that one should not bring harm to another. This is the level on which Hobbes' monarch rules. He uses his power to prevent a war of all against all from destroying society.

The middle level corresponds to what most people expect from the state. To be fair to each citizen, give each one their fair due. Each citizen is expected to be as good as they understand what the good is, and to act on behalf of it to the best of their ability. (Needless to say, our present government does not even live up to these limited expectations.)

In Hobbesian law, which is at the level of ius strictum, there is no notion of the good at all. This is simple Roman law. On the second level, the law of equity expresses simple morality, in agreement with the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It is on the third, and highest level, that universal justice exists. At this level, the highest precept of law is that man is commanded to live honorably, but needs no such commandment to do so. He chooses to live honorably not from simple obligation or duty, but because only by living honorably, piously, can man attain happiness, and live in accordance with Natural Law. On the level of ius strictum, one can be commanded not to do evil, and under the law of equity one can be encouraged to do good to others, but on the highest plateau of law one locates one's actions only in how they contrib-ute to the good of humanity—there is no other criteria or commandment necessary. It is on this plateau that man lives in the imitation of the Creator and acts with a universal identity.

Leibniz's own life was an example of one who lived this way and he de-scribes it in the following way:

Thus he who acts well, not out of hope or fear, but by inclination of his soul, is so far from not behaving justly, that on the contrary, he acts more justly than all others, imitating, in a certain way, as a man, divine justice. Whoever, indeed, does good out of love of God or of his neighbor, takes pleasure precisely in the action itself (such being the nature of love) and does not need any other incitement, or the command of a superior: for that man the saying that law is not made for the just is valid.

To such a degree is it repugnant to reason to say that only law or constraint makes man just: although it must be conceded that those

who have not reached this point of spiritual perfection are only sus-ceptible of obligation by hope or by fear; and that the prospect of divine vengeance, which one cannot escape by death, can better than anything else make apparent to them the absolute and universal necessity to respect law and justice.

Leibniz's understanding that the law is not made for the just, it is not neces-sary for those who live piously, is found in the instructions of Paul the Apostle to Timothy: "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully: Knowing this, that law is not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient." (Tim.I:8-9.)

The Nation-State and Natural Law

To bring mankind into greater coherence with Natural Law, all members of society must be encouraged to live the pious, honorable life. Thus, the state needs to go beyond simple morality to a higher level of morality. Leibniz follows Cusa's discussion of the microcosm—the individual—realizing itself in the macrocosm—the universe—with his treatise, The Monadology. Leib-niz says: ". . . that each simple substance (the monad) has relations which express all the others and consequently, is a perpetual living mirror of the universe." Man mediates his relationship to the universe through society, organized in the nation-state. So the contracted macrocosm becomes the nation-state for the microcosm—man, whose existence is given by the Creator. Thus, the most effective way to guide man's behavior into greater service of Natural Law is to alter the actions of the nation-state itself in that direction.

In his concluding remarks on Natural Law, Leibniz suggests the light of reason as the pathway to reach the good: "To summarize, we shall say in general that: The end of natural law is the good of those who observe it; its object, all that which concerns others and is in our power; finally, its efficient cause in us is the light of eternal reason, kindled in our minds by the divinity."

Acting for the good of others flows from the emotion of love identified as agape-charity. To act for humanity in such a loving manner reflects the highest moral standard for any individual in the conduct of his mortal life. This action on behalf of the good proceeds according to the path of development lit by "the eternal light of reason."

The relationship between morality, reason, and agapic love is realized in each individual's contribution to the progress of society. Each and every human being is created with the potential to act in this way. It has been recognized throughout history, that the Judeo-Christian culture of the West was conceived to foster this quality of morality, love, and reason in the population.

To help each citizen achieve this level of morality and to live the honorable life, nation-states should consciously conduct themselves to act on behalf of a higher legal code, going above simple encouragement to citizens to be good and fair to others. Were our country to conduct its affairs on this level, we would have a significant improvement over what we have today. But that would still not be sufficient.

The nation-state should consciously act to uplift its citizenry, so they can more perfectly contribute to the development of the human race in accor-dance with Natural Law. The right kind of educational process would provide our youth with an appreciation of the force of Natural Law. And our highest elected officials should be prepared to provide the moral leadership necessary to guide our nation in the service of Natural Law. It would do well for us all to learn at least this much from Leibniz.