PSCI 3307 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Jeremy Bentham, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Paris Peace Conference, 1919
8 Jun 2018
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PSCI 3307
January 19, 2018
History of Human Rights:
Three claims
• Human Rights→ Modern→ modernity started in the 15th century. Most of the societies
built on the fundamental believe that human are not equal in rank.
• Human rights→ political invention→ it is an invention something that had to be created
to establish order.
• Human rights→ revolutionary in character→ people thought thinking of themselves as
revolutionary, and human rights advanced in context of revolution, and political forms
had to change.
Key Historical moments.
• Natural rights: Hobbes and Locke (17th century) → with Locke said that the role of the
state is to protect individual rights.
• Definition of natural rights: idea that natural endowed all human beings with certain
inalienable rights; rights that do not depend upon laws or customs of any particular
society.
- the reading of today chapter one→ why rights became the criterial of political
legitimacy.
To what question is natural right the answer?
• Theory of natural rights:
- As a response to theory of natural hierarchy→ in government or the king is the
highest power in the state.
➢ Locke (second treaties): original equality of all individuals+ fundamental
liberty.
- As reaction subjection to absolute authority→ even if you have those rights you can
give them away to the King or the highest authority.
➢ Hobbes: preservation of self as right and duty→ human have duty to protect
their lives and their liberty. In human nature, humans should always protect
their lives, and humans are equal fundamentally.
➢ Hobbes believe in the infallibility of live, even if you have a king he can never
take away human’s rights.
• The Enlightenment (what is the Enlightenment? (from 1715 to 1789)).
- The enlightenment is an important human rights moment for humans.
- It was the moments where humans rejected religious believes, and everyone should
have the right to education “read” all of these ideas started to appear during the
enlightenment movement.
- Period of dramatic revolutions in sciences, technology, and politics.
- Concepts of ideas
➢ Autonomy (Kant)
➢ Freedom
➢ Human dignity
➢ Equality
➢ Authority of reason
Foundation of rights
• What are the possible foundation and justification of the existence of natural rights?
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Document Summary
Three claims: human rights modern modernity started in the 15th century. To what question is natural right the answer: theory of natural rights: As a response to theory of natural hierarchy in government or the king is the highest power in the state. Locke (second treaties): original equality of all individuals+ fundamental liberty. As reaction subjection to absolute authority even if you have those rights you can give them away to the king or the highest authority. Hobbes: preservation of self as right and duty human have duty to protect their lives and their liberty. In human nature, humans should always protect their lives, and humans are equal fundamentally. Hobbes believe in the infallibility of live, even if you have a king he can never take away human"s rights: the enlightenment (what is the enlightenment? (from 1715 to 1789)). The enlightenment is an important human rights moment for humans.
