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Philosophy vocabulary · Political Philosophy

Natural rights

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounCommon term

In philosophy, natural rights means: Rights that people are thought to have simply by being human, before and independently of any law or government.

In Turkish: doğal haklar

How it is used

Closely linked to Locke, who listed life, liberty and property, and to the natural law tradition. The idea shaped later declarations of rights. Bentham famously mocked natural rights as 'nonsense upon stilts'.

Example sentences

  1. For Locke, governments exist to protect natural rights, not to create them.

  2. If natural rights don't come from the state, where do they come from?

Common collocations

  • natural rights theory
  • natural law
  • inalienable rights
  • life, liberty and property
  • libertyThe condition of being free to act and choose without unjustified interference, especially from the state or from other people.
  • state of natureThe imagined condition of human beings living without any government or political authority, used to explain why we need a state.
  • liberalismA tradition in political philosophy that puts individual liberty, equal rights and limits on state power at the center of political life.
  • social contractThe idea that political authority or moral rules are justified because rational people would agree, or have agreed, to accept them for mutual benefit.

More terms: Political Philosophy

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