HSTY1031 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Hugo Grotius, Wild Beasts
18 Jul 2018
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Document Summary
The renaissance is the era in which the concept of rights as a noun, something which one can possess. This possession of rights in connected to the idea of property and a connection with nature and natural law. People can now have rights over things, including property and over one"s life- self- preservation and individualism. Vitoria"s idea of rights is connected to humans being social beings and rights are defined by communities. Membership pf communities is driven by a desire for self-preservation and therefore rights are driven by self-preservation. Vitoria said the native americans possessed rights by virtue of their governance and construction of society. Perhaps he did not realise that this definition of rights could be turned on its head and flipped to argue that certain humans do not possess rights. English justify colonisation, can"t go as conquerors like the spanish and can"t go as missionaries without help and therefore they must go as traders.
