John Finnis - Five-volume Collection of Essays

Five-volume Collection of Essays

In May, 2011, Oxford University Press published a five-volume collection of essays by John Finnis and a second edition of Finnis’s masterwork, Natural Law and Natural Rights. Oxford University Press explains that the Collected Essays brings together 122 papers, including over two dozen previously unpublished works. “Thematically arranged, the volumes provide ready access to his contributions across central areas of modern practical philosophy – the philosophy of practical reason; the philosophy of personal identity and intention; political philosophy; the philosophy of law; and the philosophy of revelation and the role of religion in public life.”

An Oxford publication of this magnitude is a singular honor. As Princeton’s Professor Robert P. George notes: Oxford University Press (OUP) has a more than merely plausible claim to being the most prestigious academic publishing house in the world. Across an extraordinarily wide range of intellectual disciplines, OUP publishes books by scholars of the highest standing. There is no academic writer in any field for whom a book contract with OUP is anything less than a high honor.

“In philosophy of law, OUP is simply peerless. It has published important works by almost all of the leading thinkers in the field, including H.L.A. Hart, Joseph Raz, Neil McCormick, Jeremy Waldron, and John Finnis.

“OUP has now honored Professor Finnis in a remarkable way. It has published in five volumes his collected writings in philosophy of law, political philosophy, ethics, action theory, and religion. And it has done this while publishing a second edition of Finnis’s masterwork, Natural Law and Natural Rights.

“Such a decision by a publisher as eminent as Oxford University Press testifies powerfully to the originality, importance, and influence of John Finnis’s work, and to the esteem in which he is held by his academic peers. Needless to say, Finnis has won this esteem by the force of his intellect and the power of his arguments, and not by validating or reinforcing prevailing academic orthodoxies. Indeed, at every level Finnis’s work challenges and undermines such orthodoxies.

To celebrate this remarkable achievement, Professor Gerard Bradley and Notre Dame Law School hosted an all-day conference at the Law School on September 9, 2011. Featured speakers included: Joseph Boyle, Dean Timothy Endicott, Robert P. George, The Hon. Neil Gorsuch, Germain Grisez, John Keown, Patrick Lee and Rev. Peter Ryan.