get_it_together1 t1_j7756zu wrote on February 4, 2023 at 4:23 PM

Reply to comment by contractualist in There Are No Natural Rights (without Natural Law): Addressing what rights are, how we create rights, and where rights come from by contractualist

The final section doesn’t say much except that the state doesn’t create rights and the US founding fathers considered rights. Leaving aside that the Bill of Rights was literally and amendment to the Constitution and that several key rights were left out, this doesn’t really answer the question at all, it just asserts that some other people considered the question.

contractualist OP t1_j777h34 wrote on February 4, 2023 at 4:38 PM

I'd recommend re-reading. I argue that we develop reasonable principles and apply them to specific facts create rights. Their application specifies what these rights are (I provide this linked articleas an example, to show how constitutional principles applied based on reason, create rights). This resolves the specification problem.

And the prioritization problem can be resolved by examining the meta-principles of certain rights (this linked article is provided as an example of how our moral/legal rules of consent are based on meta-ethical principles).

get_it_together1 t1_j77i9k5 wrote on February 4, 2023 at 5:49 PM

Yes, but that ignores that our legal system wasn’t simply rationally designed but instead evolved over many centuries. The US inherited English common law which traces back past the Magna Carta. Other societies develop other legal systems and sets of rights.

contractualist OP t1_j77j444 wrote on February 4, 2023 at 5:55 PM

It doesn't. I discuss this in the piece as well: "[our laws] weren’t created from scratch out of someone’s rational intuition. Rather, they evolved as legal scholars and authorities developed and discussed broad legal principles and applied them to ever-changing circumstances."