Historical Development of Natural Rights Concepts

"Knights, the gift of freedom is yours by right. But the home we seek is not in some distant land. It's in us, and in our actions on this day! If this be our destiny, then so be it. But let history remember that, as free men, we chose to make it so!
--Arthur Castis (King Arthur)

The concepts of natural law and natural rights are often attributed to the thinkers of the enlightenment and in particular to John Locke. The roots of natural law and natural rights are much broader and deeper. Rothbard's work provides some of the best insight on the progression of this stream of thought.

As I try to get this progression straight in my head, here are some of the influential groups along the way:

Scholastics (700s-1700s). Scholatisicm developed in early universities as a teaching system. It is grounded in dialectical inquiry, which is a form of learning by posing questions and theses, and then engaging in critical dialogue in search of the truth. A fundamental assumption of this approach is that individuals possess capacity for reason, and that thru this reasoning power, people can solve otherwise perplexing problems. Scholastic thought diffused thru Europe and religious orders (Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Scholastic) during 1000-1500. The dialectical processes of scholasticism were readily applied to political and economic questions. Reasoning led scholastics toward the idea that certain laws govern human behavior and that certain rights accompany human existence.

Levellers (1600s). The English Civil War during the 1640s was motivated by clashing religious and political philosophies. One stream of thought belonged to the Levellers. The Levellers constituted the first conscious libertarian mass movement. Leveller doctring was grounded in rights of 'self-ownership,' private property, religious freedom, and minimal government interference in society. These rights were 'natural' in that they were derived from the nature of man and the universe. The Levellers did not triumph in the Civil War, but their ideas provided a basis for the work of Locke and others later in the 1600s.

Physiocrats (late 1600s-1700s). Across the pond in France, physiocracy was taking root. The primary politico-economic principle of the physiocrats was the rule of nature. The primary contribution of the physiocrats was in political economy. The physiocrats were among the first laissez-faire thinkers. They called for free enterprise and unfettered trade. They also saw that money is not wealth in itself. Money is only an intermediary that facilitates exchange. It was the exchange of real goods that built weath and improved standard of living for all.

The physiocrats were clearly inspired by the idea of natural law and natural rights that was increasingly at the center of the Enlightenment era. As stated by Francois Quesnay, the founder of the physiocratic school of thought: "Every man has a natural right to the free exercise of his faculties provided he does not deploy them to the injury of himself or others. This right to liberty implies as a corollary the right to property." The only function of government is to defend that right.

Locke (1632-1704). Interestingly, John Locke's early life was not libertarian at all. He was a statist in favor of enforcing religious orthodoxy. This all changed when he became secretary to the Lord of Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper). It was Shaftesbury who instilled in Locke the notion of natural law and natural rights. Locke was thus transformed into a champion of libertarian thought who plunged into political and economic philosophy. Locke's seminal work, Two Treatises on Government, contains clear evidence of Scholastic and Leveller influence.

There are certainly other noteworthy individuals and groups in the progression, and I hope to add to my understanding of them.

The immediate takeaway for me, however, is that the theory of natural law and natural rights was at least a thousand years in the making before it was integrated into the founding principles of the United States.