Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Natural Law and the Origins of Human Rights
- Part II Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights Obligations
- 8 Ontological and Epistemological Foundations of Human Rights
- 9 The Teleological Foundations of Human Rights
- 10 New Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights
- 11 A Personalist Foundation for Natural Law and Human Rights
- 12 Acknowledged Dependence, Natural Right, and Human Rights
- 13 Eternal Law, Natural Law, Natural Rights
- Part III Natural Law and Human Rights within Religious Traditions
- Part IV The Human Person, Political Community, and Rule of Law
- Part V Rival Interpretations and Interpretive Principles
- Part VI Challenges and Future Prospects
- Index
9 - The Teleological Foundations of Human Rights
from Part II - Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights Obligations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2022
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Natural Law and the Origins of Human Rights
- Part II Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights Obligations
- 8 Ontological and Epistemological Foundations of Human Rights
- 9 The Teleological Foundations of Human Rights
- 10 New Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights
- 11 A Personalist Foundation for Natural Law and Human Rights
- 12 Acknowledged Dependence, Natural Right, and Human Rights
- 13 Eternal Law, Natural Law, Natural Rights
- Part III Natural Law and Human Rights within Religious Traditions
- Part IV The Human Person, Political Community, and Rule of Law
- Part V Rival Interpretations and Interpretive Principles
- Part VI Challenges and Future Prospects
- Index
Summary
Natural law theory in the Aristotelian-Thomistic (A-T) tradition is grounded in a metaphysics of essentialism and teleology, and in turn grounds a theory of natural rights. This chapter offers a brief exposition of the metaphysical ideas in question, explains how the A-T tradition takes a natural law moral system to follow from them, and also explains how in turn the existence of certain basic natural rights follows from natural law. It then explains how the teleological foundations of natural law entail not only that natural rights exist, but also that they are limited or qualified in certain crucial ways. The right to free speech is used as a case study to illustrate these points. Finally, the chapter explains the sense in which the natural rights doctrine generated by A-T natural law theory amounts to a theory of human rights, specifically.
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights , pp. 133 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022