God Would Not Create an Irrational Universe

Chapter 12 (intro): Why rights are natural and beneficial

Chapter 12

What Is Ours, Part 2:
Observing Rights

Why rights are natural and beneficial

• Category 1: Natural

  • Rights Precursors

    • “Rights" in nature

    • Widening the circle

  • Natural Capacities

• Category 2: Beneficial

  • Inductive Reasoning

  • The Constructal Law

  • Constructive Arguments

  • Equilibrium

    • Natural equilibrium

    • Ethical equilibrium

    • Rights equilibria:

  • Ripple effects

Children learn the fundamental principles of natural law at a very early age. Thus they very early understand that one child must not, without just cause, strike, or otherwise hurt, another; that one child must not assume any arbitrary control or domination over another; that one child must not, either by force, deceit, or stealth, obtain possession of anything that belongs to another; that if one child commits any of these wrongs against another, it is not only the right of the injured child to resist, and, if need be, punish the wrongdoer, and compel him to make reparation, but that it is also the right, and the moral duty, of all other children, and all other persons, to assist the injured party in defending his rights, and redressing his wrongs. These are fundamental principles of natural law, which govern the most important transactions of man with man. Yet children learn them earlier than they learn that three and three are six, or five and five ten. Their childish plays, even, could not be carried on without a constant regard to them; and it is equally impossible for persons of any age to live together in peace on any other conditions. It would be no extravagance to say that, in most cases, if not in all, mankind at large, young and old, learn this natural law long before they have learned the meanings of the words by which we describe it. In truth, it would be impossible to make them understand the real meanings of the words, if they did not first understand the nature of the thing itself.

—Lysander Spooner, The Science of Justice

Welcome to the twenty-first century, where the truth of individual rights—a truth our great-grandparents’ great-grandparents considered self-evident—is now derided as a quaint anachronism or a selfish malady. Where we bathe in material abundance but have little idea where it came from. Where the ideas that lead to freedom and prosperity are mocked and attacked, and the din of our entertainment becomes ever more distracting.

And yet, for all those who would but hear, the arguments for natural rights are numerous and strong. Let us explore and reclaim that knowledge.

Over the next two chapters, we will describe eleven types of arguments for natural rights, organized into four categories. These will help bridge the gap between our intuition and a more concrete understanding of how and why these rights truly are ours:

1. Natural:

   Rights precursors

   Capacities

2. Beneficial:

   Inductive

   Constructal

   Constructive

3. (Crossover)

   Equilibrium

4. Moral:

   Natural Law

   Intuitive

   Deductive

5. Practical:

   Hypothetical

   Cultural

Nature or Nature’s God?

Here at the very beginning of this quest, we find that we have arrived at a rocky strait. It was inevitable that we should encounter this challenge, and like good sailors, we should meet it head-on. To the one side—believers in God. To the other—atheists. Can they ever see eye to eye on the source of rights?