Professor Goerner has little or nothing to say about my critical assessment of John Finnis's book, in which I take it he concurs. His main concern is with some incidental remarks that I was led to make regarding the much debated and still unresolved question of the “naturalness” of the natural law as Thomas Aquinas understood it. The purpose of these remarks was twofold. First, since I had raised doubts about the theoretical viability of the modern rights doctrine, I did not wish to leave the reader with the impression that I was advocating a pure and simple return to the old natural law theory, which, although more adequate, is not without serious difficulties of its own.