John Finnis and the internal point of view of the internal point of view

Abstract

According to John Finnis the internal point of view proposed by H.L.A. Hart as a cardinal element of the notion of legal rule would be morally charged by “rules of practical reasonableness”, so that the internal point of view would necessarily be a moral point of view. We propose to show that Finnis’s argument suffers from circularity and that it is even fallacious regarding the moral problem of euthanasia. To do this, we will focus on three important notions: a) the descriptive or normative nature of theories; the internal point of view; and c) the so-called central case and peripheral cases in the field of practical reasoning. In the conclusion, it should be clearly seen that Finnis’s refinement of the idea of internal point of view, while interesting, fails to identify that perspective with the moral point of view.