Revolutions in Europe and North America - Natural Rights

REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA HIST 1301 | History Natural Rights Throughout the eighteenth century, the subject of natural rights—rights that all people possess, such as the right to life and liberty—formed the basis of several philosophical treatises and discussions. The idea of natural rights was first introduced not in the Enlightenment but in far older traditions of justice and natural law. It is predicated on the idea that every person has basic and unalienable rights, rights that cannot be restricted or cancelled by human laws. For instance, the idea of asha, which translates to "God's will," in the ancient Persian Zoroastrian religion was the immutable law that comes from the divine and rules the cosmos. Natural law was interpreted in numerous ways by ancient religious and philosophical traditions, but European Enlightenment intellectuals turned these concepts into a political framework that was unprecedented at the time. Rather than conventional Christian social hierarchies or the divine right of monarchs, Enlightenment philosophers envisioned political systems based on natural rights, driven by the increased focus on reason and the desire to enhance human life in the eighteenth century. The English philosopher John Locke was among the first Enlightenment intellectuals to address the question of natural rights. He maintained that everyone had the basic right to life, liberty, and property. In his seminal book of political theory, Two Treatises of Government, he maintained that everyone is born free and that popular sovereignty—the idea that government should only exist with the permission of the people—is the right to govern. Locke and his European contemporaries believed that all people are equal by nature, but their interpretation of equality is a little contradictory because they actively backed the unfair systems of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, which denied natural rights to everyone but White men. Important members of the French Enlightenment argued about the extent of natural rights, much as Locke and his English counterparts. François-Marie d'Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire, was a particularly ardent supporter of fundamental liberties and rights. He was a vocal opponent of the French monarchy, the aristocracy, and the Catholic Church. He was especially committed to upholding freedom of speech, religious toleration, and the inherent value of reason, which he accomplished in writings like Republican Ideas and Treatise on Tolerance. Voltaire made fun of both secular government and organised religion in his most well-known work, the satire Candide, published in 1759. Montesquieu, a contemporary of his, wrote a great deal about the connection between rights and laws. In his 1748 book The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu addressed the idea of political liberty and the necessity of upholding the division of a state's legislative, executive, and judicial functions as a way to hold the government accountable. The conflict between the power of the state and people's autonomy served as an inspiration for Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings as well. Rousseau is most known for his important book The Social Contract and other Enlightenment philosophical works. The concept of the social contract dates back to the time of Plato and Socrates in the fourth and fifth centuries BCE, as well as the Buddhist text The Mahāvastu written in the second century BCE. It is based on the idea that people give up their inherent rights to the state, which is then responsible for upholding and defending those rights. According to Rousseau's analysis of natural rights, the development of human societies necessitates interdependence and calls for balancing individual liberties with state sovereignty. While everyone has the right to pursue their own interests, the government must also have the authority to impose restrictions on personal freedoms in order to safeguard the rights of everyone. He also talked about the notion of the general will, which holds that a state can only be justified if it is run by the collective desire of the populace as opposed to the whims of a small, elite group. While thinkers of the time like Jeremy Bentham and Edmund Burke questioned the existence of natural rights, others, like Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, emphasised the difference between unalienable rights and the power of the state. The English barrister Jeremy Bentham is credited for popularising utilitarianism, a political theory that places emphasis on the pursuit of the greatest good for the largest number of people. He argued that rights did not exist outside the boundaries of civil society and could only be created by the state. Bentham argued that challenging the legitimacy of natural law could only result in anarchy and disorder, regardless of whether the government followed the will of the people or ignored its primacy. Edmund Burke, an Irish philosopher, shared Jeremy Bentham's rejection of the idea of popular sovereignty. While acknowledging the validity of natural law, he contended that the development of civil society rendered natural rights obsolete, since only virtuous and well-informed individuals ought to be able to hold political authority. They would act in the people's best interests, who, in Burke's view, would inevitably renounce their own preferences and will in favour of the state. The Enlightenment allowed individuals to think more critically about their relationship with the state and the validity of revolution, even though it also gave rise to a broad range of beliefs on the meaning and origins of natural rights. Some intellectuals, like Locke and Voltaire, championed the integrity of natural rights and held that political liberty could not be tampered with, while others, like Burke and Bentham, supported the primacy of the state over individual rights. The debate carried over into the Enlightenment and gave rise to discussions of social contract theory, which concentrated more on the morality and authority of the legal system and the political order.