Une approche volontariste du droit naturel et de la contradiction. Une façon de bâtir la notion de hiérarchie dans la pensée latine médiévale.

The analysis of medieval jurists shows us how the manipulation of deontic prima facie contradictions is associated in interpretative argumentation to a theory of the legitimacy of the normative hierarchy, understood not only as a political tool, but essentially as a rational tool in a legal science directed toward a political theology. The notion of natural law in emblematical documents such Decretum of Gratian, dated XII. century, cannot be reduced to the posterior Aristotelian-Thomistic intellectualist model (XIII. century): there is more than one way to think about natural law in Christian Latin medieval world, these ways are present along many centuries, and there is at least one of this different ways showing some points of contact and dissonance with the Jewish and Muslim traditions. We can speak about the alternatives to the Aristotelian-Thomistic intellectualist model as the voluntarist model families (in a Wittgenstein's meaning): deontic contradictions may be stronger than prima facie contradictions, they may be genuine contradictions calling for a new act of will as the only way to eliminate the deontic contradiction. Duns Scotus’ theory can be used to illustrate the issues of extreme voluntaristic ontological approach. | A prior version of this article was published in Parisoli (2008d: 124-141).