Natural Rights
What are some good arguments for why humans have natural rights, if we do, and what those natural rights are? For example, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (or property, if you're John Locke). You can say anything that makes sense as long as it is not a religious argument. This is not because the religious argument is bad, only because I'm looking for other, less obvious reasons.
posted by empeterson @ 10:23 PM
3 Comments:
At 3:29 AM ,
Matthew B. Novak said...
Because rights are inherent in personhood - without them we are not truly people. Therefore, if we are people, we must have rights.
Or because Natural Law mandates certain things, including respect for the rights of others.
At 7:40 AM ,
empeterson said...
yes, but why are they inherent? what is it about people that they automatically get rights?
At 8:59 AM ,
Matthew B. Novak said...
Meh, I don't know. I'd say because we're imbued with them by our Maker.
Maybe it's the universal appeal and importance of these things - the reason they're "rights" is because before life has meaning people must have those fundamentals, namely life itself, certain liberties, and the right to pursue happiness.
Then again, maybe there are no inherent rights, other than life and the right to control one's thoughts. To me the concept of rights always seemed inferior to the concepts of duty and natural law.
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