Natural rights

Public.icon

Rights held to be inherent in nature and accessible to all human beings regardless of legal or cultural restrictions

Life, liberty, property, and health are among the rights that are commonly considered natural rights

Human rights are considered to be representative of natural rights

In ancient Greece, natural rights were considered to be rights inherent in human nature, while in Scholastic philosophy, they were considered to be rights bestowed by God

From ancient thought, natural rights made significant progress in the 17th century through the Social contract theory

Hobbes defined the state of nature

Hobbes assumed a state of nature in which the existence of society or community, which had been considered self-evident until then, was dismantled. In the state of nature, all human beings were assumed to have the right to self-preservation, which was considered to be universal, and Hobbes advocated the universality of natural rights

In this state of nature, "it is permissible to interfere with others if it is for one's own protection," which is not good, so he advocated for a "state/government based on a social contract"

Furthermore, he argued that the self-preserving nature of natural rights sometimes has the potential to threaten the lives and bodies of others in order to eliminate external obstacles that interfere with one's own will, which can lead to the "Struggle of the masses against the masses." As a result, he advocated for the existence of natural law as a rational inference and the necessity of a state (government) based on a social contract to maintain each person's self-preservation.

Although it was proposed as something given by God in Scholastic philosophy, it was summarized by proposing natural law

John Locke proposed the concept that if the state (government) violates the right of properties inherent in each person, the people are justified in resisting

This is called the right to revolution

This had a significant impact on civil revolutions such as the American Revolution

Rousseau is also related to this

Adoption in constitutions

The concept of natural rights has been adopted in the constitutions of various countries

The earliest adopters were America and France

First, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was adopted in America in 1776, stipulated in Article 1 that "all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights."

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was adopted in France in 1789, stipulated in Article 1 that "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights."

Furthermore, the Constitution of Japan also based on the concept of natural rights, stipulates human rights as "fundamental human rights that cannot be violated" (Article 11, 97).