Philosophical law

Philosophical law

Philosophical law is a section of philosophy that examines the nature of law. Rational law, as an academic aspect, explores the nature of law concerning other systems of norms. The main application of this field is that it questions the meaning of legality, legal validity, and inquiries about the relationship between morality and law. Philosophical law is divided into two branches; normative jurisprudence and analytical jurisprudence. In this paper, a complete analysis of the two ideas and their sub-branches has been done. Additionally, the concepts have been applied to explain the movie, “The Martian by Ridley Scott.” This text is, therefore, an application of philosophical laws to the decisions that were made in the film, “The Martian.”

Analytical jurisprudence seeks to provide a general account of the nature of law. Analytical jurisprudence applies conceptual analysis. Its generality is applied to the sense that it targets universal features of the law. By Universal features, it is meant to be used at times and all places and still holds up. The target of philosophers applying this kind of law is to identify features of the law that are shared across all humanity. The general account approach allows philosophers to question the relationship that separates law from morality, morality from politics, and morality from practical reasons. Analytical jurisprudence, a philosophical law, is depicted in the movie, “The Martian.” The general account of morality is seen when NASA’s head of the operation, Dr. Vincent Kapoor wants to bring Mark home from Mars (MacIsaac, 2015). His conceptual analysis that would apply across all states is that bringing him back from planet Mars would be an event of honor and an obligation as a scientist. Making such a decision as to the head of NASA is not about what the crowds want but what would be conventionally accepted as morality and law.

A second philosophical law that applies in the decision making of the movie, “The Martian,” is legal positivism. Legal positivism is a law that primarily depends on social facts. Within legal positivism, three facts are used to determine social events; the pedigree thesis, the separability thesis, and discretion thesis. The pedigree thesis analyzes situations and morality according to where the information has come from (Biggar, & Black, 2017). The decision given to the team that loses Mark is that they should leave Mark and get their ways back to planet earth. Even if the team does not stand by their decision and wish they could save Mark, it won’t count. Since the directive has come from the NASA head scientist, it is not supposed to be questioned. The team cannot go back and find Mark since they apply the pedigree thesis of philosophical law, where the source of information determines its morality. The pedigree thesis is a belief that a directive issued by a proper official in power is what determines the legal validity of the decision. The second thesis of positivism that applies in the movie and the decision made is the separability thesis.

The separability thesis explains that law and morality are distinct (MacIsaac, 2015). Law contains morality within it. However, legal decisions do not have to be moral or practically merit morality in the eyes of humans (Merges, 2019). The choice of the rest of the team leaving Mark in Mars doesn’t auger well with the team. They think it is immoral, leaving a member of their team on planet Mars, whether dead or alive. However, according to legal positivism, it is legal to leave Mark dead or alive on Mars since the NASA bosses have directed so. It doesn’t matter whether the team is satisfied or disappointed, or they see it as moral, they all have to follow the decision of their bosses. Finally, the discretion thesis is about knowing what legal and ethical decision to make depending on a situation that came earlier. A situation like before has never faced NASA, and so the philosophical law is not applied in the decision making of the movie much.

Normative jurisprudence as an aspect of philosophical law is concerned about normative, evaluative, and prescriptive questions about law and morality. Its three elements include utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics.

Utilitarianism is the view that legal and moral decisions should be made based on the best consequences. In the movie “The Martian,” NASA’s determination to find Mark and bring back from Mars is based on the best value. The head of NASA sees this legal and moral decision as to the one that will produce the best consequences, it doesn’t matter the means they use, but they have to get Mark from Mars. In the process of applying effects, they break a few rules like interfering with Mark’s team, but that doesn’t matter so long as, in the end, Mark would be home.

Additionally, Deontological approach emphasizes that laws should protect the rights of an individual and their liberty (Stevens, 2017). It is the deontological approach of philosophical law that has been used in making a lot of decisions in the movie, “The Martian.” A better part of the earth has been brought to a standstill as people think about ways of saving Mark the astronaut. The decisions made by NASA’s head scientist all respect and honor Mark as a human who is of service (MacIsaac, 2015). Such choices reflect exactly the deontological approach of philosophical law.

In conclusion, the movie “The Martian” is a reflection of how philosophical law applies in our society today in various ways. In this analysis, it is logical to derive that different philosophical theories relate to several decisions made during the whole mystery of saving Mark from planet Mars.

References

Merges, R. P. (2019). Philosophical foundations of IP law: the law and economics paradigm. In Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Biggar, N., & Black, R. (2017). The revival of natural law: philosophical, theological and ethical responses to the Finnis-Grisez school. Routledge.

Stevens, C. (2017). Perfectionist Liberalism, Natural Law Jurisprudence, and the Philosophical Foundations of Environmental Law. In Environmental Political Philosophy (pp. 51-98). Routledge.

MacIsaac, D. (Ed.). (2015). “The Martian”: A science movie review How accurate and enjoyable is a new movie about a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars?. The Physics Teacher, 53(9), 573-573.