Two Books of the Elements of Universal Jurisprudence

Axiom 1

283 u a x i o m i u Any action whatsoever that may be directed according to a moral norm, which is within a man’s power to do or not to do, may be imputed to him. And, on the contrary: That which neither in itself nor in its cause was within a man’s power may not be imputed to him (that is, as a matter of desert, yet it is well if that be done as an act of grace on the part of the one who makes the imputation, in case some good has come to pass). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The order of this book. Imputation upon grace, and upon desert. Bare imputation and efficacious imputation. Just who can impute effectively? Good and bad actions are imputed in diverse fashions. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Just what cannot be imputed? Just what can be imputed? How are actions of others imputed to us? On the communication of actions. Is an imputation retroactive? Just what failures to perform actions can be imputed? 1. Now that we have thrown light, in our firstbook,accordingtothescheme of our plan, upon the definitions of matters contained in Universal Jurisprudence , the next step is, in this book, to look into the principles to which in juridical demonstrations one ultimately ascends. Therefore, in addition to the common axioms1 which, derived from prime philosophy, occur here 1. According to Aristotle, the common axioms which are universally valid in any discipline —in contradistinction to those peculiar to individual disciplines—are the principles of contradiction and of the excluded third. Aristotle, Posterior Analytics I.11, 77a10,22 in Analytica priora et posteriora; Metaphysics, IV.3. 284 book ii, axiom i and there throughout that work, there are found to be here two kinds of principles proper to this discipline, the rational, namely, and the experimental . The truth of the former, their certainty and necessity, flows from reason itself, without the perception of particulars, or withoutundertaking an examination, merely from the bare intuition of the mind. But the certainty of the latter is perceived from the comparison and perception of particulars uniformly corresponding to one another. These latter we shall call Observations, as we shall call the former Axioms.2 Now, since man is in this world more for the sake of action than for the sake of contemplation, and so it is more necessary for him to act rightly than subtly to contemplate matters which he may approach only with the mind’s vision; it has come about, not without the special providence of the Creator, that the certainty of theoretical verities would have to be extracted from first principles for the most part laboriously, and, as it were, through a prolonged series of consequences; but the certainty of practical matters rests very easily upon an extremely small number of principles,andthosemostperspicuous,from which, for the most part, these practical matters can be deduced by a simple operation. And this, of course, was so that no one who has even slight intellectual ability, could advance as an excuse for his sins, that, because of the obscurity of the case, it was not vouchsafed him to understand what was to be done. And so it does not appear to us that there should be set up more than two rational principles for this discipline; to wit, A man must render an account of those actions which are within his power to do or not to do, and The obligation to act can be enjoined upon us by the authority of a second person. If any one add to these the principles which are most manifest through common sense and experience, namely, that upon man, to whom it has been given by nature to understand matters, and from an intrinsic movement of the will to bestir himself to action, it has been enjoined by God, to whose sovereignty he is absolutely subject, to lead a social life, and to observe that which, on the basis of the dictates of right reason, makes for the preservation of the same, it will then be easy for any one whatsoever to rec2 . The distinction between rational and experimental principles is taken from Weigel ’s Analysis Aristotelica. See preface, note 7, and Analysis Aristotelica, sect. II, chap. ix,§1. what actions may be imputed 285 ognize what he ought to do or to leave...