What Are Natural Rights?

Question

What are natural rights, and why are they the foundation of modern political thought? The question arises because the idea that individuals have rights that governments cannot violate is the most influential political idea of the modern era.

Quick Answer

Natural rights are rights that belong to every human being by virtue of their humanity. They are not granted by any government or legal system; they are inherent in the nature of human beings. The natural rights tradition holds that these rights are universal (they apply to all people everywhere), inalienable (they cannot be given up or taken away), and pre-political (they exist before and independently of government). The most famous formulation is Thomas Jefferson's in the Declaration of Independence: 'unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' The philosophical foundation of natural rights has been understood in different ways: as grounded in natural law, in human nature, in rational self-interest, or in the capacity for autonomy.

Historical Wisdom

The natural rights tradition emerged in early modern Europe. Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) provided the first systematic theory: the 'right of nature' is the right of every individual to do whatever is necessary for self-preservation. This right is absolute in the state of nature but is largely surrendered to the sovereign in the social contract.

John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689) offered the classic formulation. Locke argued that all human beings are born free and equal, with natural rights to life, liberty, and property. The purpose of government is to protect these rights. If a government violates them, the people have a right to resist.

The natural rights philosophy reached its fullest political expression in the American and French Revolutions. The American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) both asserted the existence of natural rights as the foundation of legitimate government.

Philosophical Perspectives

The natural rights tradition has been criticized from several directions. Jeremy Bentham and the utilitarians argued that natural rights are 'nonsense upon stilts' — there are no rights that exist independently of law and utility. Edmund Burke and the conservatives argued that rights are not abstract and universal but are the product of historical development and tradition. Karl Marx argued that natural rights are bourgeois rights that protect private property and mask exploitation.

Contemporary defenders of natural rights, including Robert Nozick, argue that natural rights impose strict limits on what government can do. The libertarian tradition holds that the protection of natural rights is the only legitimate function of government.

The modern human rights movement represents a transformation of the natural rights tradition. Human rights are universal rights that are recognized in international law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is the most important modern statement of the idea.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Locke: natural rights to life, liberty, and property are the foundation of legitimate government. From Hobbes: the right of nature is the right to self-preservation. From Paine: natural rights are the foundation of democratic government. From Bentham: natural rights are metaphysically dubious. From Marx: natural rights are bourgeois rights that protect inequality. From Nozick: natural rights impose strict limits on government.

Practical Application

The concept of natural rights is central to debates about the limits of government power, the protection of individual liberties, and the foundation of human rights. When we say that a government cannot legitimately restrict freedom of speech, religious liberty, or bodily autonomy, we are asserting the existence of natural rights. The question — what are natural rights? — is therefore a practical question about the limits of state power.