Natural Law and Human Dignity  

"Natural law became universal, international, even cosmic law. The Sophists had set physis in opposition to nomos; the Stoics had restricted this opposition to that of physis and thesis and thereby opened the space for the most remarkable expansion of the concept of nomos. Nomos was equated with the law of the universe, with the inviolable ananke [necessity] named in Democritus's philosophy of nature: Physis was no longer in opposition to nomos, but a synonym for it; physis became the first nomos, which was universally grounded. In this way the first lasting, although troublesome, relation between the concepts of nature and law was achieved; for the first time we find natural law as a pathos."--Natural Law and Human Dignity (1986) by Ernst Bloch