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Full Idea
The essence of the claim to natural rights is that no one has a right against me unless he can cite some contract, my consent to it, and his performance of his obligations under it.
Gist of Idea
I am naturally free if I am not tied to anyone by a contract
Source
Alasdair MacIntyre (A Short History of Ethics [1967], Ch.11)
Book Ref
MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'A Short History of Ethics' [Routledge 1967], p.155
A Reaction
This has become the foundation of western democracy, and the rebellious teenager's charter. Children have not consented to a contract with their parents. Close and loving relationships cease to be contractual.
| 8001 | 'Dikaiosune' is justice, but also fairness and personal integrity [MacIntyre] |
| 8002 | Sophists don't distinguish a person outside one social order from someone outside all order [MacIntyre] |
| 8006 | When Aristotle speaks of soul he means something like personality [MacIntyre] |
| 8005 | 'Happiness' is a bad translation of 'eudaimonia', which includes both behaving and faring well [MacIntyre] |
| 8008 | The Bible is a story about God in which humans are incidental characters [MacIntyre] |
| 8013 | In the Reformation, morality became unconditional but irrational, individually autonomous, and secular [MacIntyre] |
| 8012 | The value/fact logical gulf is misleading, because social facts involve values [MacIntyre] |
| 8021 | The Levellers and the Diggers mark a turning point in the history of morality [MacIntyre] |
| 8022 | I am naturally free if I am not tied to anyone by a contract [MacIntyre] |
| 8023 | My duties depend on my identity, which depends on my social relations [MacIntyre] |
| 8031 | Fans of natural rights or laws can't agree on what the actual rights or laws are [MacIntyre] |