Me personally? That would be morality, which comes from the ability to feel empathy and some critical self-reflection.

Question: Are there people on Earth who don't have Rights? The concept of Rights is a Western concept, and the tendency to apply that idea as a universal human idea that is written into nature is a very Western thing to do, but this universalism is an idea that has run its course and with the rise of postmodernism and a critical look at what these concepts are and how they came about (rather than thinking our own prejudices are universal law) has been very revealing.

/e sorry, incomplete sentence there.

This post was edited by Skinned on Feb 26 2015 02:14pm

Think of that more along the lines of "in the face of our fellow man." And that's what natural rights are; the normal expectations of behavior from our fellow civilized human beings, not animals.



Do you need a lmgtfy for natural rights? Or can I point to the post addressed to Skinned that included it?

That was what I was trying to say thank you!

The concept of 'rights' as we define it in western world is not an empirically valid concept, it doesn't exist in terms of a redeeming claim to something(or from something), which is the way people generally conceive it.

On what basis do you say you have an expectation to liberty? You could always be enslaved and that right would be violated, then what?

The concept of natural rights grew out of a denial of the right of kings. Natural rights serves as the basis for the upholding of the individual as the pinnacle of society as opposed to the king. As a natural result, slavery is a relic of a bygone era and mankind has no expectation that they can be enslaved. Your point is moot in the face of history.

So then that would imply before we stopped holding slaves, the slaves of the time did not have the natural right not to be enslaved.

Are you thinking there was a clear line to be crossed that said king's rights on this side, natural on the other? Because there isn't.

Back to my original question.... on what basis do you have an expectation to liberty? Mankind may not as a whole be enslaved, but individuals can surely be enslaved and deprived of liberty. There are many even today, although maybe not in America, that will certainly be enslaved in their lifetime. The question of slavery is not moot in the face of history because it still happens.

you know human trafficking still exists right?