POL_S 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Relativism, Ancient Greek Philosophy
Document Summary
Some elements of human rights in ancient greek philosophy. 13th century just war doctrine restricted acceptable use of warfare. Pre-enlightenment, right of monarchs superseded individual rights. Natural rights movement of the 17th century asserted that there was a law above human laws. Locke: life, liberty, property: these rights come either from god or social contract. In 19th century natural rights approach fell out of favor for being too vague. Utilitarianism: policies should bring greatest amount of good to the. Marxism began to provide some different conceptions of how rights greatest amount of people should be defined. Wilson following wwi: right to self-determination of peoples. Universal declaration of human rights came shortly after holocaust. Human rights are applicable to everyone, by virtue of being human. Very much in the natural rights tradition, though a bit more secular now relies on tradition, success of western states for support.
