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Friday, December 2, 2016

Philosophy and Human Rights (part 2)

In the first part of this article, I’ve shown how Enlightenment thinkers emancipated human beings from the shackles of the Church’s power and authority.  This emancipation was in terms of reaffirmation of the ideas of man’s individuality, his rational nature, and his freedom.  These philosophical ideals are liberating, which help pave the way to the reclamation of human rights.  Kant, however, did not specifically deal with the idea of human rights as emphasized in the first part.

Locke on Human Rights

John Locke (1632-1704) considers human rights as natural endowments such as the right to life and the right to live.  But, it’s not clear to me if Locke grounds the idea of human rights in man’s reason similar to what I’ve traced in Kant’s philosophy.  What is clear to me is that these rights are inviolable.  For example, if a person loses in a battle and becomes a captive, we obviously conclude that he loses also his independence.  His freedom is taken away from him.  Yet, his rights as a person cannot be stripped off from him.  The capturer may take everything from him like his henchmen, armor, family, properties, and even his freedom.  But his human rights cannot be taken away from him.  This is also true of a case of a blind person or any person with special needs.  Although he is deprived of one or two parts of his body which are necessary to live a normal life, he/she has still all these rights.  These rights will only be gone once the person dies.  It seems to me that when we say, “human rights are natural,” the word “natural” could refer to one’s existence.  In other words, human rights are inseparably one with one’s existence.  This is, I think, a very important development in the conceptualization of human rights.  The concept of human rights is first and foremost rooted in man’s very existence.  Thus, it’s over and above any conventional matter of human rights, like found in social contract, constitution, laws and any other legal proceedings.

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is also an important figure in the conceptualization of human rights since he introduces the word, “social contract.”  He views that “persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live.”[1]  Human society is best formed under a certain social contract in which all of its members agree and enter into.  This idea defies the belief in Medieval times that society is created and ordained by God.  For Rousseau, the formation of society is conventional.  It’s a matter of agreement, which each and every member of the society enters into.  This gives us the idea that society must be democratic, not authoritative and monarchical.  It’s a kind of society wherein each and every member shall take active participation in its social and political affairs.  On this basis, we conclude that human rights can best be exercised and only be respected under democratic principles.  The advocacy of human rights does not strive in authoritative governments. 

Finally, let me try to single out some threads of philosophical ideas, which we can connect to the idea of human rights.  First, the following ideas, namely: reason, individuality, freedom are the foundation of human rights.  Second, the exercise of human rights can only strive under democratic principles.  Third, respect of human rights happens only in democratic governments.


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