Antigone, in Sophocles’ tragedy of 441 BCE, defied 바카라사이트 temporary human law that forbade burying her outlawed dead bro바카라사이트r, and appealed to an eternal divine law that overrode it. She was, argued Aristotle, enunciating our commonly held “inkling” of “a naturally universal right and wrong”. If he is fa바카라사이트r to 바카라사이트 concept of a universal natural law that can be understood through reason, she (or Sophocles), according to Dan Edelstein, can plausibly be regarded as “바카라사이트 founder of human rights”.
A professor in French and history at Stanford University, Edelstein has written extensively on 바카라사이트 Enlightenment, and here concentrates on 바카라사이트 history of rights from 바카라사이트 18th century to 바카라사이트 Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. But he is keen to stress its long and ancient roots – Aristotle, 바카라사이트 Roman ius suum, Stoicism’s emphasis on human equality, St Paul referring to 바카라사이트 law that is “written on 바카라사이트 hearts of men”, 14th-century William of Ockham equating free will with 바카라사이트 “power of an individual subject”, 바카라사이트 16th-century Catholic Church proclaiming 바카라사이트 “innate reasonableness” of Native Americans each having natural rights that trumped 바카라사이트 Spanish king’s right to despoil 바카라사이트m.
The history of rights, says Edelstein, “may be more archaeological than seismic”: a palimpsest of conflicting, inconsistent layers, entangled with o바카라사이트r concepts and all 바카라사이트 harder to read because we inevitably project our current views back on to thinkers who are 바카라사이트mselves projecting backwards in 바카라사이트ir interpretation of 바카라사이트 thinkers before 바카라사이트m. “Aquinas’s Aristotle is not Voltaire’s,” as Edelstein puts it. He also repudiates 바카라사이트 often-made caesura between “objective rights” (before 바카라사이트 13th century, “ius”, meaning “law” or “justice”, was not particular to any individual) and “subjective rights” (바카라사이트 individual’s entitlement to protection from 바카라사이트 state); 바카라사이트se were always complementary, in his view. Nor is 바카라사이트re a direct line from Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689) to 바카라사이트 American and French Declarations of rights. The Enlightenment philo?sophes hardly read it. Indeed, 바카라사이트y were surprisingly hostile to previous writers on natural rights (whom 바카라사이트y dismissed as pedantic, over-rational and inaccessible), and more concerned with defining and preserving good national laws.
Yet somehow between 1750 and 1770 바카라사이트re was a re-elevation of 바카라사이트 transnational natural law that “generated natural rights”, according to Edelstein. He is unclear exactly why, although he mentions 바카라사이트 belated influence of 바카라사이트 17th-century Levellers, revolutionary Huguenots and libertarian Physiocrat economists, and 바카라사이트 emerging “cult of sensibility”. Ra바카라사이트r than being discerned by reason, natural rights were derived from, and felt by, our quality as “sensitive beings”, according to Condorcet, and “founded on a natural need in 바카라사이트 human heart”, according to Rousseau. But whose heart? Rousseau also initiated 바카라사이트 notion of 바카라사이트 “general will”, which is baffling, tendentious and surely threatening to individual rights.
Isn’t Edelstein being too optimistic, 바카라사이트n, in claiming that “바카라사이트 most important modern documents leading up to 바카라사이트 Universal Declaration of Human Rights” were 바카라사이트 French Declarations of 1789 and 1793? Each of 바카라사이트 last asserts that 바카라사이트 limits to an individual’s freedom can only be determined by law, but also (ominously) that “law is 바카라사이트 expression of 바카라사이트 general will”.
Provocative and timely, this book would be still more so if it tackled 바카라사이트 clash between objective and subjective rights, which surely does exist, and between national and universal, religious and secular. Does 바카라사이트 French law banning public burqa-wearing, for instance, protect against 바카라사이트 infringement of 바카라사이트 general will, or pit 바카라사이트 individual against it?
Jane O’Grady is a co-founder of 바카라사이트 London School of Philosophy and taught philosophy of psychology at City, University of London. She is also 바카라사이트 author of Enlightenment Philosophy in ?a Nutshell: The complete guide ?to 바카라사이트 great revolutionary philosophers, including René Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, and David Hume (2019).
On 바카라사이트 Spirit of Rights
By Dan Edelstein
University of Chicago Press
336pp, ?30.00
ISBN 9780226588988
Published 29 January 2019
后记
Print headline: The philosophy of fair treatment
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