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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
Doubts about rights
The concept of rights, as has often been noted, became prominent at a particular time in our history. It is associated especially with seventeenth and eighteenth century political ideas about the rights of individuals versus those of governments, and with such notable events as the American Declaration of Independence. It was at this time, too, that debates about rights of property and liberty became prominent. What was the role of this concept in earlier times? Has it always existed? Does it have a permanent place in our moral thinking? According to H.L.A. Hart,
the concept of a right, legal or moral, is not to be found in the work of the Greek philosophers, and certainly there is no noun or noun phrase in Plato or Aristotle which is the equivalent of our expression ‘a right’, as distinct from ‘right action’ or ‘the right thing to do’.
A bolder denial has been made by Alasdair Maclntyre, according to whom
there is no expression in any ancient or medieval language correctly translated by our expression ‘a right’ until near the close of the Middle Ages: the concept lacks any means of expression in Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Arabic, classic or medieval, before about 1400.
These claims have not gone unchallenged, however. Thus it has been argued that rights play a prominent and essential role in Aristotle's Politics.
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