Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) was a novelist, poet, playwright, lecturer, stand-up comic, Futurist, and psychologist. He was the author of books such as the
The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan,
Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-ups,
Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, etc.
This short 1987 book is a response to L.A. Rollins' book,
The Myth of Natural Rights. Wilson wrote in the first chapter, "I shall endeavor to show... that the Natural Law metaphysics can accurately be described as a verbal construct that... appears to be a map that does not correspond to any real territory, but... should be considered statistically 'normal' because most people most of the time are similarly entranced..." (Pg. 2-3)
He asks, "If such a 'law' is not explicitly attributed to a specific 'God' or a specific 'Government'... And we have already seen that it is not a law in the metaphoric sense in which the predictions statistically derived from scientific models are loosely called 'laws' (then) what kind of law is it?" (Pg. 23)
He says that "All the arguments in modern Natural Law theory would immediately make some kind of sense if one inserted the word 'God' in them... It seems that the word is left out because the Natural Law cultists do not want it obvious that they are setting up shop as priests; they want us to consider them philosophers." (Pg. 27)
He raises the "suspicion" that what is called Natural Law may consist only of "personal prejudice with an inflated metaphysical label pinned on it" (Pg. 33). "Their case is logically possible... but they ... certainly haven't produced any evidence to justify the pontifical certitude that they always seem to profess." (Pg. 37)
Although sometimes confounding, Wilson's book is an intellectually-stimulating consideration of the matter.
