Question:medium

Austinian notion of 'positive morality' is:

Updated On: Jul 13, 2026
  • a priori
  • socially constructed
  • religiously constructed
  • law strictly so called
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The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

Austin's command theory splits rules of conduct into two families: positive law, which comes from a political sovereign and carries a legal sanction, and positive morality, everything else that regulates behaviour through social pressure instead. This question is testing which family positive morality belongs to.

  1. a priori: Austin's whole approach treats law and morality as observable social facts, not truths that hold independent of experience, so this label does not fit his thinking.
  2. socially constructed: Austin describes positive morality as rules enforced through the opinion, approval and disapproval of a society or a group within it, such as etiquette, honour codes, or club rules, rather than through a sovereign's command. Since these standards are built and enforced by social practice, "socially constructed" is the accurate description.
  3. religiously constructed: too narrow, Austin's category covers all opinion backed rules, religious morality is just one instance, not the whole of positive morality.
  4. law strictly so called: this is Austin's separate category for sovereign backed positive law, and the entire point of naming positive morality separately is that it does not qualify as law strictly so called.

Let's summarize:

  • Positive law: rules from a sovereign, backed by legal sanction.
  • Positive morality: rules from social opinion, backed by social sanction only.

Austin's positive morality is best described as socially constructed.

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