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> Our rights are always there, but often violated. That sounds like 18th-century thinking. In that era, "natural rights" seemed a reasonable notion because peo
by Mediterraneo10 7y ago
> Our rights are always there, but often violated.
That sounds like 18th-century thinking. In that era, "natural rights" seemed a reasonable notion because people could agree on the existence of a higher authority (even if it was a pretty aloof Deist-type God) that bestowed those rights inalienably on each and every person. But that idea has become increasingly discredited, and in the 19th century other schools arose with their positions that "rights" are merely an invention of human societies for the purposes of those societies.
- ColanR 7y agoA 'right' bestowed by society is no longer a right, but a privilege conditionally granted. However, without a shared higher moral authority, I can claim whatever rights I want and you can't tell me otherwise. All you can do is forcibly remove my ability to freely exercise them, and all I can do is forcibly defend my ability to enjoy them. Hence the existence of the USA's second amendment.