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Single Idea 7827

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 1. Basis of Rights ]

Full Idea

Spinoza's advocacy of democracy on the basis of individual rights was extraordinarily bold for its time, and it qualifies him as the first truly modern political philosopher.

Gist of Idea

Spinoza wanted democracy based on individual rights, and is thus the first modern political philosopher

Source

comment on Baruch de Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670]) by Matthew Stewart - The Courtier and the Heretic Ch. 6

Book Ref

Stewart,Matthew: 'The Courtier and the Heretic' [Yale 2007], p.102

A Reaction

Sounds right. Hobbes may have been the 'first modern man', but his politics was fairly medieval. John Lilburne and co. may have campaigned for rights and democracy, but they weren't really philosophers.

The 43 ideas with the same theme [what can justify giving or withholding rights]:

236 Sound laws achieve the happiness of those who observe them [Plato]
2828 Law is intelligence without appetite [Aristotle]
19896 It is not a law if not endorsed by the public [Hooker,R]
7827 Spinoza wanted democracy based on individual rights, and is thus the first modern political philosopher [Stewart,M on Spinoza]
19926 The sovereignty has absolute power over citizens [Spinoza]
6251 The loss of perfect rights causes misery, but the loss of imperfect rights reduces social good [Hutcheson]
21094 There are two kinds of right - to power, and to property [Hume]
20570 There is now a growing universal community, and violations of rights are felt everywhere [Kant]
20571 There are political and inter-national rights, but also universal cosmopolitan rights [Kant]
21003 Only laws can produce real rights; rights from 'law of nature' are imaginary [Bentham]
7539 To get duties from people without rights, you must pay them well [Goethe]
21781 The absolute right is the right to have rights [Hegel]
22783 Rights imply duties, and duties imply rights [Hegel]
3775 A right is a valid claim to society's protection [Mill]
20519 Marxists say liberal rights are confrontational, and liberal equality is a sham [Marx, by Wolff,J]
7173 Rights arise out of contracts, which need a balance of power [Nietzsche]
5916 Rights were originally legal, and broadened to include other things [Ross]
23751 Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force [Weil]
23752 Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity [Weil]
23835 People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them [Weil]
21004 Hart (against Bentham) says human rights are what motivate legal rights [Hart,HLA, by Sen]
4693 The right of non-interference (with a 'negative duty'), and the right to goods/services ('positive') [Foot]
22810 A right is not just a rule, but also asserts certain ideas of moral worth [Taylor,C]
22812 For most people the primacy of rights mainly concerns freedom [Taylor,C]
3276 A morality of rights is very minimal, leaving a lot of human life without restrictions or duties [Nagel]
23568 If whole states possess rights, there can be social relations between states [Walzer]
20285 If a right entails having the relevant desire, many creatures might have no right to life [Singer]
8031 Fans of natural rights or laws can't agree on what the actual rights or laws are [MacIntyre]
21016 Political and civil rights are not separate from economic and social rights [Nussbaum]
18652 The Lockean view of freedom depends on whether you had a right to what is restricted [Kymlicka]
23379 Rights are a part of nation-building, to build a common national identity and culture [Kymlicka]
23382 Rights derived from group membership are opposed to the idea of state citizenship [Kymlicka]
5653 A right is a power which is enforced in the name of justice [Scruton]
5064 Rights are moral significance, or liberty, or right not to be restrained, or entitlement [Mawson]
20512 Standard rights: life, free speech, assembly, movement, vote, stand (plus shelter, food, health?) [Wolff,J]
20513 If natural rights are axiomatic, there is then no way we can defend them [Wolff,J]
20514 If rights are natural, rather than inferred, how do we know which rights we have? [Wolff,J]
20988 Freedom from torture or terrorist attacks is independent of citizenship [Sen]
23606 Liberty Rights are permissions, and Claim Rights are freedom from intervention [McMahan]
20602 Some rights are 'claims' that other people should act in a certain way [Tuckness/Wolf]
20604 Choice theory says protecting individual autonomy is basic (but needs to cover infants and animals) [Tuckness/Wolf]
20603 One theory (fairly utilitarian) says rights protect interests (but it needs to cover trivial interests) [Tuckness/Wolf]
20607 Having a right does not entail further rights needed to implement it [Tuckness/Wolf]