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Single Idea 21082

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 3. Natural Values / c. Natural rights ]

Full Idea

The state of nature need not be a state of injustice merely because those who live in it treat one another in terms of power. But it is devoid of justice, for if a dispute over right occurs in it, there is no competent judge to give valid decisions.

Gist of Idea

A power-based state of nature may not be unjust, but there is no justice without competent judges

Source

Immanuel Kant (Metaphysics of Morals I: Doctrine of Right [1797], §44)

Book Ref

Kant,Immanuel: 'Political Writings', ed/tr. Reiss,Hans [CUP 1996], p.137

A Reaction

Could you not achieve justice by means of personal violence? Might not a revered older person have been accepted as a judge?

The 22 ideas with the same theme [rights that seem to belong to any living creature]:

7402 Everyone has a right of self-preservation, and harming others is usually unjustifiable [Grotius, by Tuck]
7412 Spinoza extended Hobbes's natural rights to cover all possible desires and actions [Spinoza, by Tuck]
19914 In nature everything has an absolute right to do anything it is capable of doing [Spinoza]
19915 Natural rights are determined by desire and power, not by reason [Spinoza]
19866 The rational law of nature says we are all equal and independent, and should show mutual respect [Locke]
19872 The animals and fruits of the earth belong to mankind [Locke]
19907 There is a natural right to inheritance within a family [Locke]
3732 Rational beings have a right to share in the end of an action, not just be part of the means [Kant]
21082 A power-based state of nature may not be unjust, but there is no justice without competent judges [Kant]
21071 There can be no restraints on freedom if reason does not reveal some basic rights [Kant]
20977 Natural rights are nonsense, and unspecified natural rights is nonsense on stilts [Bentham]
21785 We are only free, with rights, if we claim our freedom, and there are no natural rights [Hegel, by Houlgate]
22790 We cannot assert rights which are unnatural [Hegel]
3773 No individual has the right to receive our benevolence [Mill]
3774 Rights are a matter of justice, not of benevolence [Mill]
14822 If self-defence is moral, then so are most expressions of 'immoral' egoism [Nietzsche]
23836 Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives [Weil]
21940 Nature is not the basis of rights, but the willingness to risk death in asserting them [Foucault]
8050 There are no natural or human rights, and belief in them is nonsense [MacIntyre]
7595 The idea of a right seems fairly basic; justice may be the disposition to accord rights to people [Scruton]
5660 Allegiance is prior to the recognition of individual rights [Scruton]
23262 Experience, sympathy and history are sensible grounds for laying claim to rights [Grayling]