The Napoleonic Code, therefore, was founded on the premise that, for the first time in history, a purely rational law should be created, free from all past prejudices and deriving its content from "sublimated common sense"; its moral justification was to be found not in ancient custom or monarchical paternalism but in its conformity to the dictates of reason.
In this case a temporal ruler, the "ruler imâm", is no longer necessary because the rational Law is the real guide, "incarnated" in the "rightly guided" imâm and in his reason and knowledge.
So amid my grief for Aaron, I'm angry – and committed to working for honorable enforcement of rational laws, and for values Aaron exemplified in his short life.
Musical genres don't obey rational laws of supply and demand, which means the musical marketplace is always beset by gluts and shortages.
Voltaire could not follow any of the maths, but on political grounds he wanted to believe that Newton was perfect in all respects (for if Newton's clear, rational laws explain the heavens, then it's fair for us to seek out similar rational laws to reform politics here on Earth).
The liberal orthodoxy that justice can be guaranteed and democracy legitimated by fundamental, rational laws and institutions that embody them is still taught in schools of law and government, most often through the study of the thought of John Rawls.
Thoughtful scientists realize that everything that's knowable isn't known, that not everything that's rational yields readily to experiment, and that within the realm of what we have not yet explored, some things may indeed prove not to obey rational laws.
It is only when someone can reason about their actions by observing them logically that is, as a rational law-giver might that self-awareness has been minimally achieved.
Fulfill the rational laws and guard the laws that are beyond understanding.
Just as physical laws exist prior to physical beings, rational laws (morality) exist prior to rational beings.
Rational laws, such as prohibitions against killing and stealing, teach us moral imperatives.
