ABSTRACT
John Finnis argues that the common good of political society does not itself instantiate a basic human good; that it is not, in particular, the object of a natural inclination, as to something intrinsically good; but that it is only a necessary means for the instantiation of such basic intrinsic goods, primarily within families. This view he expresses by calling the common good of political society "instrumental." The instrumentality of the common good, then, implies limitations on the public good, on law, and on public authority. Finnis claims that Thomas Aquinas's remarks about justice and peace imply a view which, in outline, is not unlike Mill's harm principle, and which anticipates relatively recent developments in liberal democratic political theory. Arguments based on claims of natural equality carry us well beyond, or even outside of, the framework provided by Aristotelian political theory, in which Aquinas operates.
