Where do natural rights come from?
A few of my basic assumptions:
1. Natural rights are inherent.
Ethical principles must preceed governments since we need those principles to evaluate if a government is legitimate or not.
It is clear that a government cannot objectively measure its own legitimacy or determine when/if it has transformed into a totalitarian state.
2. We rely on our reasoning to determine which ethical principles are aligned with life, liberty and prosperity.
Our reasoning capacity can only function as an extension of our sovereign existence qua free men and women. Free individual agency is an embodiment of decentralization; sovereign decisionmaking.
3. Every person must be assumed to be born free and sovereign. If this was not the state of things, slavery would reign and no rights would exist. Under such circumstances any form of government would be illegitimate.
Since every individual is born sovereign, each person own themselves, their minds, decisionmaking and the fruits of their labor.
John Locke (1690):
"Every man has a "property" in his own "person". This nobody has any right to but himself. The "labour" of his body and the "work" of his hands, we may say, are properly his.
(Two Treatises of Government; book 2, chapter 5.27, page 130)
4. Since we own the fruits of our labor, we must be free to buy, own, transfer, sell and exchange our property as we see fit, hence free trade.
If you need the permission of a third party in regards to how you manage your property, your property rights have been abolished and need to be re-instated.
5. As we depend on communication to live, to invent solutions and improve our conditions, solve problems, error-correct and vocalize that which harms us or which may cause harm, we must have free speech in order to exist, prosper and to maintain individual sovereignty.
In conclusion, if any of these principles are undermined, the responsible government must be determined to be illegitimate.
#Liberty #Freedom #Minarchism #LimitedGovernment #HumanRights #NaturalRights #JohnLocke #Objectivism #AynRand
Leo Fernevak
npub1y0…zfvpl
2024-04-02 08:59:47
Author Public Key
npub1y02f89rpykzhqmrjjz99uwgyl9gh06sg0vpjmklu62rzxpx8mxps7zfvplPublished at
2024-04-02 08:59:47Event JSON
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"content": "Where do natural rights come from?\nA few of my basic assumptions:\n\n\n\n1. Natural rights are inherent.\n\nEthical principles must preceed governments since we need those principles to evaluate if a government is legitimate or not.\n\nIt is clear that a government cannot objectively measure its own legitimacy or determine when/if it has transformed into a totalitarian state.\n\n\n\n2. We rely on our reasoning to determine which ethical principles are aligned with life, liberty and prosperity.\n\nOur reasoning capacity can only function as an extension of our sovereign existence qua free men and women. Free individual agency is an embodiment of decentralization; sovereign decisionmaking.\n\n\n\n3. Every person must be assumed to be born free and sovereign. If this was not the state of things, slavery would reign and no rights would exist. Under such circumstances any form of government would be illegitimate.\n\nSince every individual is born sovereign, each person own themselves, their minds, decisionmaking and the fruits of their labor. \n\nJohn Locke (1690):\n\n\"Every man has a \"property\" in his own \"person\". This nobody has any right to but himself. The \"labour\" of his body and the \"work\" of his hands, we may say, are properly his. \n\n(Two Treatises of Government; book 2, chapter 5.27, page 130)\n\n\n\n4. Since we own the fruits of our labor, we must be free to buy, own, transfer, sell and exchange our property as we see fit, hence free trade.\n\nIf you need the permission of a third party in regards to how you manage your property, your property rights have been abolished and need to be re-instated.\n\n\n\n5. As we depend on communication to live, to invent solutions and improve our conditions, solve problems, error-correct and vocalize that which harms us or which may cause harm, we must have free speech in order to exist, prosper and to maintain individual sovereignty.\n\n\n\nIn conclusion, if any of these principles are undermined, the responsible government must be determined to be illegitimate.\n\n\n\n#Liberty #Freedom #Minarchism #LimitedGovernment #HumanRights #NaturalRights #JohnLocke #Objectivism #AynRand",
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