Prawo stanowione a wolność człowieka (z perspektywy filozofii nowożytnej i św. Tomasza z Akwinu)

Modern and contemporary times have brought a juxtaposition and a peculiar rivalry between the positive law and man’s freedom that have not been known earlier. This is accompanied not only by a tendency to give law and freedom autonomy, but also to separate them from man’s nature, from real order of social life and from the moral dimension of human activities. The article undertakes an attempt at revealing the ostensible character of the antagonism between positive law formulated by man and freedom. In the author’s opinion, this antagonism, so distinct in modern conceptions referring to liberalism, anarchism, as well as to totalitarianism and collectivism and other trends — can be solved not by engaging in a discussion with participants of the dispute, but by showing the truth of reality itself, or by understanding the nature of human freedom itself and the nature of law itself. Thus the author of the present article claims that basic explanation of the relation of human freedom to positive law needs studying reality of law itself and reality of human freedom itself. Non-antagonistic character of the relation between positive law and human freedom was best shown and explained by St Thomas Aquinas (STh I-II, q. 90-97).