The Historical Background of the Idea of Human Rights

The idea of human rights did not appear until 1789. After the French Revolution, the idea of human rights first emerged in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789.

Greek philosophy is a convenient starting point to uncover the origins of human rights.

The word translated as ‘justice’ is dike in the Ancient Greek language. And, dikaios which means just, comes from dike. Also, dikaiosyne generally used by Plato consists of the terms of dikaios and -syne which forms abstract nouns from the adjectives and nouns. The original meaning of dike is literally a way or path in which a certain class of people usually behaves, or normal course of nature.

Early Greeks consider justice and injustice as if they are universal laws or laws of nature rather than concepts created by humanity. But Heraclitus apprehends that justice and injustice were man-made, and that God does not care about either. For that reason, for many Presocratic Greek philosophers, happiness consists in living according to nature or the universal law.

The Sophists set physis, which means natural, against nomos, which means social law, and they set individual opinions against tradition. They also considered that the nomoi (plural case of ‘nomos’ in Ancient Greek) are social conventions and laws, and not a part of the natural order. The idea that social laws are changeable leads to the idea that there should be something else that does not change. Before the Sophists, this conception had already been put forward by the Presocratics. But with the Sophists, an opposition between physis and nomos has emerged which leads us to the idea of natural law. In other words, it was asserted that conventional laws are changeable but natural laws are not.

In philosophy, the happiness of an individual is the subject of ethics, but the happiness of a society is the subject of politics.

Plato was a follower of Socrates. He stated his political views, namely, his understanding of the justice (dikaiosyne) and the state, in his famous work called Republic. The question of justice or the concept of justice is at the center of his philosophy, especially in his Republic. Plato’s Republic is in the form of a dialogue, just as the other works of Plato; and he speaks through Socrates in his many dialogues.

The Sophists had distinguished between nature and customs, but Plato made a distinction between the physical and the intelligible world. According to the Sophists nature is perfect, immutable and eternal, whereas according to Plato ideal beings are perfect, immutable and eternal.

Plato considers the idea of justice in two different contexts. For him, there is the same number and the same kinds of classes as are in the city are also in the soul of each individual. He says that “a man is just in the same way as a city”. The closest meaning of justice is stated when Plato compares the constitutions of an ideal state (city) and of soul and “they both follow the principle of ‘doing one’s own and proper task’” Plato sees three classes in a state. The classes of a state are rulers (governors of the state), auxiliaries (soldiers or defenders) and producers (farmers, artisans, etc.).

Plato considers justice as a master virtue in comparison with other virtues.

According to Plato, the best polity is the monarchy which is governed by a philosopher king.

Aristotle (384-342 BC) was one of Plato’s students. According to Aristotle, the political and social setting is crucial for the virtue and happiness for the citizens”. Therefore, for Aristotle, the polis (city state) is necessary and natural for the good of all citizens, and the state also aims at the happiness of its citizens. Moreover, since human beings are not self-sufficient and they need others in order to be self-sufficient, the state is essential for the realization of one’s own abilities and also for the realization of justice.

In Aristotelian ethics, moral virtues or ethical virtues are the means (intermediate cases) between two other vices, one involving excess, and the other deficiency.

According to Aristotle, general justice is related to the political system, the law and social morality. General justice refers to lawfulness, and it is related to the common good and happiness of political community. Also, the concept of general justice supports the distinction between the just and unjust. Since the law is related to human beings, “the just and the lawful may coincide.” On the other hand, an unjust person is against the law, and he takes more than his due. But Aristotle adds that breaking the law is unjust only if the law is rightly enacted.

According to Aristotle, equality is logically superior to justice, because without equality, there is not a justice.

According to Augustine, justice is a divine attribute, and it does not belong to this world (earthly state), and it can only be realized in the city of God.

According to Aquinas, natural law is definite, certain and immutable because it is divine and because it comes from God.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) presented a new method for analyzing legal foundations and redefined the traditional juridical concepts of law, right and justice. He is also the founder of the modern tradition of individual rights and the first philosopher to replace fully the concept of justice with the idea of rights. In the state of nature there is no authority, such as the state. Hobbes defines the state of nature as the state of war of everyone against everyone else. Hobbes distinguishes between liberty and law. Liberty is a right, but the law is an obligation. For Hobbes, justice is an obligation to keep promises and to obey the law, whereas injustice is to violate the law.

John Locke (1632-1704) is the leading philosopher of liberalism and as a contractarian philosopher, he is the first philosopher to suggest that there are such things as natural rights; which are our rights by virtue of the fact that we are human. Locke states that the basics rights of man are life, liberty and property. He is thus considered to be the founder modern liberalism. For Locke, the right is a power, or an authority which individuals have, and which was granted by law.

For Kant, the distinction between right and virtue depends on the concept of freedom. Inner freedom is the only right that is innately owned due to be a being human. The principle of innate freedom involves the innate equality, that is, independence from being bound by others. “Thus, the civil condition, regarded merely as a rightful condition, is based a priori on the following principles:”.

1. The freedom of every member of a society as a human being.
2. His equality with every other as a subject.
3. The independence of every member of a commonwealth as a citizen.

Bentham defines the concept of right with reference to the concepts of duty, law and punishment. For Bentham, natural rights are not properly rights because no right can be prior to government.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was a radical and democratic republican who believed in the sovereignty of the individual person, and he was also an early advocate of the right of the people. According to Paine, the concept of right cannot be considered without the concept of duty. Paine claimed that rights are given by any authority and rights are equal for all humans.