If natural law arguments struggle to gain traction in contemporary moral and political discourse, could it be because we moderns do not share the understanding of nature on which that language was developed? Building on the work of important thinkers of the last half-century, including Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, John Finnis, and Bernard Lonergan, the essays in Concepts of Nature compare and contrast classical, medieval, and modern conceptions of nature in order to better understand how and why the concept of nature no longer seems to provide a limit or standard for human action. These essays also evaluate whether a rearticulation of pre-modern ideas (or perhaps a reconciliation or reconstitution on modern terms) is desirable and/or possible.Edited by R. J. Snell and Steven F. McGuire, this book will be of interest to intellectual historians, political theorists, theologians, and philosophers.

Table of ContentsIntroductionR. J. Snell and Steven F. McGuire1.Voegelin's Analysis of Human Nature in AristotleBarry CooperResponse by Thomas W. Smith2.Nature, Human Nature, and Human Dignity in Light of the Primary Experience of the CosmosGlenn HughesResponse by Melissa Moschella3.Natural Rights and History: Hugo Grotius' Modern Translation of AristotleJeremy Seth GeddertResponse by Jesse Covington4.Categories and Causes: Physics and Politics for Aristotle and for UsJames R. Stoner, Jr.Response by Christopher O. Tollefsen5.Rousseau on Nature, Freedom and the Moral LifeSusan Meld ShellResponse by Geoffrey M. Vaughan6.Nature, History and the Problem of Progress in H.G. WellsCharles T. RubinResponse by Amy Gilbert Richards7.Nature in Louis Dupré's Model of ModernityStephen M Fields, SJResponse by Anna Bonta Moreland8.From Pure Nature to Concrete Subject: The Question of God in the Secular AgeRandall S. RosenbergResponse by Gregory R. Beabout