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Sunday, February 7, 2021

Rousseau and Natural Rights

When intellectuals talk about natural rights, they are following Rousseau’s famous line in The Social Contract: “Men are born free but everywhere are in chains.” They identify natural rights as a political empowerment that is available to every man in all parts of the world, and the chains as the political, intellectual, and cultural constraints imposed by society. All this is nor logical. Men are not born free—they are highly dependent when they are born and when they are in the stage of childhood; and everywhere men are not in chains—the world has a few semi-free societies, where some rights exists due to the political system and culture, while most societies are unfree, as their culture does not allow a rights-based political system. There is no social contract between men, and there are no natural rights. All rights are man made.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I agree.
Our world is not as simple and 'made-to-order" as Rousseau and his ilk would prefer, so that they could declare "victory' and say loudly, "QED".! A community's workings are not like a plumbing or electrical blueprint. "Man does not live by bread alone"- a thousand times more relevant than Rousseau.
Look forward to your future Postings.