You have Natural Rights

Pierce K. Kozlowski

Ancient Thinking Behind Rights

According to the Declaration of Independence, humans have “unalienable rights” which do not come from government, but rather from humanity's Creator. But what are natural, individual rights? And why do those rights come from a Creator as opposed to the government? Depending on who is being asked, these questions have different answers. The founders, however, had a clear stance: Rights, in the American sense, were things that the government could not infringe upon, such as the right to free speech or the right to self-defense. But Jefferson wrote that these rights did not come from government, but from a higher source. This was because a government with the power to give rights meant it also had the power to take away those same rights. However, rights which emanate from a higher source—such as nature and nature’s Creator—are truly “inalienable;” those rights cannot be usurped, violated, or invaded for any reason.

This notion of natural rights was not a spur-of-the-moment idea the founders developed, since the idea of natural rights had a long history that bore its roots in natural law. Natural law philosophy is the binding of faith and reason; more specifically, the binding of Christian values and Greek philosophy. In Christianity, the author of the book of Genesis wrote that humanity was made in God’s image: “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female” (1). Since people bore God’s image, they possessed intrinsic value. Since all people were made in the image of God and not just a select few, all people were made inherently equal, with inestimable value. On the other hand, however, Greek philosophy posited that what separated humanity from other creatures was their ability to reason. Not only that, but it was also humanity’s purpose to use their reason. Plato originally articulated this in the Republic (2), but Aristotle more concisely echoed this same sentiment later on in Nicomachean Ethics (3), writing that “the function of man is an activity of the soul in accord with, or not without, rational principle.” Since humans had the capacity to reason, human nature’s purpose, according to the Greeks, was to use their innate capacity to reason.

When the Christian notion of all people having intrinsic value was merged with the Greek view that humanity’s distinctive trait and natural purpose was to reason, natural law was created. This type of reasoning paved the way for the concept of natural rights. If humanity was inherently valuable, with a distinct nature to reason, then humanity had the right to use that reason so long as they did not violate the well-being of others. Theologian Hugo Grotius mirrored this thinking when he wrote, “God created man free and sui iuris [under his own dominion], so that the actions of each individual and the use of possessions were made subject not to another’s will but to his own” (4). Humanity had a clear nature to reason, and a strong inclination to use that reason. Naturally then, humanity had the divine right to exercise that reason.

Natural Rights from Locke to Jefferson

It would not be for another four decades, however, until natural rights would make their greatest strides—specifically in the works of John Locke. Locke was in agreement with Grotius and the Greeks, and he reaffirmed the idea that humans were made by God with inherent value and that the nature of humans was to use reason. Locke beautifully expressed this in his Second Treatise of Government and wrote that the “natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule” (5). Locke concluded that humanity had particular rights which predate government—meaning that whether someone is under a government or not, they still possess particular rights in nature because of humanity’s capacity to reason and their inherent value. Moreover, Locke continued by outlining the most basic natural rights: “being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (6). The right to life implies a right to defend one’s self since it is innate to human survival; the right to liberty implies a right to act as one chooses, so long as those actions do not infringe on the rights of others; and finally, the right to possessions implies a right to the fruits of one’s own labor.

If the final cause (or purpose) of human nature was to reason, then humanity had the natural right to use that reason to act in accordance with nature. This doctrine was central to the founders, who cherished both natural rights and reason. Thomas Jefferson expressed his passion for using reason in a letter to John Tyler, hoping that America “may be governed by reason and truth” (7). Almost three decades earlier, however, Jefferson noted that natural rights were sourced from nature, not from government: “A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate” (8). It would only be a year later that Alexander Hamilton would go one step further than Jefferson by declaring that—more than nature itself—natural rights, without question, came from God. Hamilton penned, “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power” (9). Hamilton explains that not only did natural rights come from a higher source, but such rights could not be compromised by any human authority because such rights sprang from something more significant in nature—natural law and the Divine Author of that law, God himself.

That is why Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence cites natural rights as coming directly from the “laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” Since humanity has the capacity to reason, humanity can discern which endeavors to pursue and how to pursue them using their reason. Naturally then, since natural law cherishes using reason to act in accordance with nature, the natural right treasuring the freedom to pursue that endeavor was the greatest requirement. This is why humanity’s unique nature to reason is the ultimate rationale for natural rights. This is also why the founders believed that these rights were inalienable. Lastly, the founder’s understanding of natural rights was revolutionary for the time because the government had been made the chief protector of rights rather than the originator of them.

References

1. Genesis 1:27, NASB1995

2. Plato, Republic. Hackett Publishing Company, 1997, 353c-353e.

3. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Princeton University Press, 1984, 1098a.

4. Grotius, Hugo. The Rights of War and Peace (2005 ed.) vol. 1 (Book I). Liberty Fund, 1625.

5. Locke, John. “Of Slavery,” Second Treatise on Government. 1690

6. Locke, John. “Of the State of Nature,” Second Treatise on Government. 1690

7. Thomas Jefferson. “Letter to John Taylor”. Letter, June 04, 1798. From Teaching American History. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/letter-to-john-taylor-2/.

8. Thomas Jefferson. “A Summary View of the Rights of British America”. Essay, 1774. From Teaching American History. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/a-summary-view-of-the-rights-of-british-america/.

9. Alexander Hamilton. “The Farmer Refuted”. Essay, February 23, 1775. From Teaching American History. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-farmer-refuted/.