Tuesday, June 17, 2008

an attack on the idea of natural rights

Here's an argument against Jefferson's claim that we have inalienable rights.
Natural Rights Don't Exist

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been suspicious of natural rights for quite a long time(ever since MacIntyre.)

The only big problem I have with that paper is simply that the Declaration was a piece of propoganda. So, he could have gone a little easier on Jefferson.

One Brow said...

Jefferson was writing under a British system which did not recognize the rights that he described, and which was the legal government of the colonies until they succeeded in separating themselves and forming a new one.

Well, this document was actually the first step, the separation. It seems he is criticizing Jefferson not waiting until we declared indenpendence, in the vbery document designed to do so. Such a document seems a very natural place to include axioms for the new system.