Human Rights and Natural Law

(Jody Gray) I created this Blog Post as a place of reference to information about the topic of Human Rights…
Origin - The question - Where did the idea of "Human Rights" come from? The concept of natural law first appeared in ancient Greek philosophy. It was subsequently alluded to in the Bible, then developed in the Middle Ages by Catholic philosophers. It was used to challenge the divine right of kings, and became an alternative justification for the establishment of a social contract, positive law, and government - and thus legal rights - in the form of classical republicanism.

*Natural Law.

Natural Law [https://en.wikipedia.] is a philosophy asserting that certain rights are inherent by virtue of human nature endowed by nature; traditionally God or a transcendent source, and can be understood universally through human reason. As determined by nature, the law of nature is implied to be universal.  Historically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature to deduce binding rules of moral behavior from nature’s or God’s creation of reality and mankind. The concept of natural law first appeared in ancient Greek philosophy including Aristotle, and was referred to by Roman philosopher Cicero. It was subsequently alluded to in the Bible, and was then developed in the Middle Ages by Catholic philosophers such as Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas. During the Age of Enlightenment, modern natural law theories were further developed, combining inspiration from the Roman law, and alongside philosophies like social contract theory… It was used to challenge the divine right of kings, and became an alternative justification for the establishment of a social contract, positive law, and government - and thus legal rights - in the form of classical republicanism. Conversely, the concept of natural rights is used by others to challenge the legitimacy of all such establishments.  Contemporarily, the concept of natural law is closely related to the concept of natural rights. Indeed, many philosophers, jurists and scholars use natural law synonymously with natural rights, or natural justice, while others distinguish between natural law and natural right.  Declarationism, a legal philosophy that is considered to violate the Supremacy Clause and the Anti-Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution, argues that the founding of the United States is based on natural law. Because of the intersection between natural law and natural rights, natural law has been cited as a component in the United States Declaration of Independence, and claimed by natural law proponents thus to be incorporated into it constitution, as well as in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.  Although natural law is often confused with common law, the two are distinct. Even though natural law theories have exercised a profound influence on the development of English common law, the latter is not based on inherent rights, but is the legal tradition whereby certain rights or values are legally recognized by virtue of already having judicial recognition or articulation. Natural law is often contrasted with the human-made laws (positive law) of a given state, political entity or society. In legal theory, the interpretation of a human-made law requires some reference to natural law. On this understanding of natural law, natural law can be invoked to criticize judicial decisions about what the law says, but not to criticize the best interpretation of the law itself. Plato. According to Plato, we live in an orderly universe. The basis of this orderly universe or nature are the forms, most fundamentally the Form of the Good, which Plato describes as “the brightest region of Being”. The Form of the Good is the cause of all things, and when it is seen it leads a person to act wisely. In the Symposium, the Good is closely identified with the Beautiful. In the Symposium, Plato describes how the experience of the Beautiful by Socrates enabled him to resist the temptations of wealth and sex. In the Republic, the ideal community is, “...a city which would be established in accordance with nature.”

*Plato.

*Plato [https://en.wikipedia.] b. 428/427 or 424/423 BC, Athens, Greece. Founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western World. He, along with his teacher, Socrates and his student, Aristotle laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato has also often been cited as one of the founders of Western religion and spirituality. His influence on Christianity is often thought to be mediated by his major influence on Saint Augustine of Hippo, one of the most important philosophers and theologians in the foundation of the Western thought.

*Aristotle.

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*Social Contract.

*Social Contract [https://en.wikipedia.] In both moral and political philosophy, the social contract or political contract is a theory or model originating during the Age of Enlightenment, that typically addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social contract arguments typically posit that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler or magistrate (or to the decision of a majority), in exchange for protection of their remaining rights. The question of the relation between natural and legal rights, therefore, is often an aspect of social contract theory. The term takes its name from The Social Contract, a 1762 book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that discussed this concept.   Although the antecedents of social contract theory are found in antiquity, in Greek and Stoic philosophy and Roman and Canon Law, the heyday of the social contract was the mid-17th to early 19th centuries, when it emerged as the leading doctrine of political legitimacy. The starting point for most social contract theories is an examination of the human condition absent any political order that Thomas Hobbes termed the “state of nature”. In this condition, individuals’ actions are bound only by their personal power and conscience. From this shared starting point, social contract theorists seek to demonstrate, in different ways, why a rational individual would voluntarily consent to give up their natural freedom to obtain the benefits of political order.   ...In the absence of political order and law, everyone would have unlimited natural freedoms, including the “right to all things” and thus the freedom to plunder, rape, and murder; there would be an endless “war of all against all”. To avoid this, free men contract with each other to establish political community, i.e. civil society, through a social contract in which they all gain security in return for subjecting themselves to an absolute sovereign, one man or an assembly of men. Though the sovereign’s edicts may well be arbitrary and tyrannical. Hobbes saw absolute government as the only alternative to the terrifying anarchy of a state of nature.   Alternatively, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have argued that we gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so. The central assertion of social contract approaches is that law and political order are not natural, but are instead human creations. The social contract and the political order it creates are simply the means towards an end - the benefit of the individuals involved - and legitimate only to the extent that they fulfill their part of the agreement. According to Hobbes (in whose view government is not a party to the original contract) citizens are not obligated to submit to the government when it is too weak to act effectively to suppress factionalism and civil unrest. According to other social contract theorists, when the government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of society (called the “general will” in Rousseau), citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey, or change the leadership through elections or other means including, when necessary, violence.   Locke believed that natural rights were inalienable, and that the rule of God therefore superseded government authority, and Rousseau believed that democracy (self-rule) was the best way of ensuring the general welfare while maintaining individual freedom under the rule of law. The Lockean concept of the social contract was invoked in the United States Declaration of Independence. Social contract theories were eclipsed in the 19th century in favor of utilitarianism, Hegelianism, and Marxism, and were revived in the 20th century, notably in the form of thought experiment by John Rawls -Theory of Justice (1971).

*Classical Republicanism.

*Classical Republicanism [https://en.wikipedia.] aka Civic Humanism, is a form of republicanism developed in the Renaissance (14th to the 17th century) inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity, especially such classical writers as Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero. Classical republicanism is built around concepts such as civil society, civic virtue and mixed government. Classical Republicanism also traces itself through the Islamic world as Asabiyyah which is a form of social solidarity that is required for civil society, as identified by Ibn Khaldun.   ...The ideology of republicanism blossomed during the Italian Renaissance… a number of authors looked back to the classical period and used its examples to formulate ideas about ideal governance.   ...According to Baron, for many years the foremost expert on the development of classical republicanism, the ideology was a product of the long conflict between Florence and Milan. Florence was ruled by its commercial elites while Milan was a monarchy controlled by its landed aristocracy. The Florentines asserted that their form of government was superior on the basis that it was more similar to that of the Greeks and the Roman Republic.   ...modern republicanism rejected monarchy in favor of rule by the people… Classical republicanism was rather aimed against any form of tyranny, whether monarchic, aristocratic, or democratic (tyranny of the majority). The notions of what constituted an ideal republic to classical republicanism themselves depended on personal view.   ...Most controversial is the classical republican view of liberty and how, or if, this view differed from that later developed by liberalism…

*Niccolo Machiavelli - "Machiavellianism".

*Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) [https://en.wikipedia.] a Florentine historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer. "Machiavellianism" is a widely used negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in The Prince. Machiavelli described immoral behavior, such as dishonest and killing innocents, as being normal and effective in politics. He even seemed to endorse it in some situations. The book itself gained notoriety when some readers claimed that the author was teaching evil, and providing "evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power." The term "Machiavellian" is often associated with political deceit, deviousness, and realpolitik. On the other hand, many commentators... have argued that Machiavelli was actually a republican, even when writing The Prince, and his writings were an inspiration to Enlightenment proponents of modern democratic political philosophy... The Art of War, Machiavelli [https://en.wikipedia.] Machiavelli wrote that war must be expressly defined. He developed the philosophy of "limited warfare" - that is, when diplomacy fails, war is an extension of politics. Art of War also emphasizes the necessity of a state militia and promotes the concept of armed citizenry. He believed that all society, religion, science, and art rested on the security provided by the military. Critique. However at the time he was writing, firearms, both technologically and tactically, were in their infancy and the rushing of enemy missile armed troops, of artillery even, between salvos, by a charge of pikes and sword and shield men would have been a viable tactic. In addition Machiavelli was not writing in a vacuum; Art of War was written as a practical proposition to the rulers of Florence as an alternative to the unreliable condottieri [contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy] mercenaries upon which all the Italian city states were reliant. A standing army of the prosperous and pampered citizens that would have formed the cavalry would have been little better. Machiavelli therefore "talks up" the advantage of a militia of those arms that Florence could realistically muster and equip from her own resources.

*Humanist.

*Humanist -Renaissance humanism [https://en.wikipedia.] Humanists sought to create a citizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging in the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions.

*Humanism.

*Humanism [https://en.wikipedia.] is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition. The term was coined by theologian Friedrich Niethammer at the beginning of the 19th century. Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress. In modern times humanist movements are typically aligned with secularism, and today humanism typically refers to a non-theistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.

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*BP: Religion, Cross Reference. http://indextoblogposts.*
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