THEORETICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION

Philosophically viewed, the concept of human rights has been enriched by the contribution of
many thinkers. Zero, the founder of the Stoic School of thought, propounded the theory of Natural
Law which begins with the assertion that all human beings have natural rights. From this concept,
they developed the notion of “Universal brotherhood” which is considered to be the foundation of
the idea of human rights.

Reference to Greek Political ideas would reveal that both Plato and Aristotle developed their
philosophical construction around two issues: common good and justice. Absolute justice can be
achieved when an individual can perform the duties assigned to him in harmony with common
good. Like Plato, Aristotle also laid emphasis on the concepts of justice, virtue and rights.

Medieval thinkers like Augustine had also emphasised the concept of human rights by
highlighting the notions of natural law and natural rights although the primary aim was to
safeguard the supremacy of the church.
 
The age of Enlightenment tried to attach secular nature to entire discourse on human rights.
Hobbes explained the nature of the state in secular perspective. Similarly, Locke and Rousseau
assigned to the state or the political authority the duty to protect individual’s right to property and
equality before the law.

The notion of human rights was explained from a different perspective by Jeremy Bentham, the
father of the Utilitarian School of thought. He rejected the idea of natural rights as singly non
sense and impractical. J.S. Mill also discarded the metaphysical concept of natural rights and
school for fundamental freedom of man.

 The socialist view of human rights puts emphasis on some fundamental and core issues of human
being as the right to health care and education, emancipation of women, the prohibition of child
labour, universal voting rights and the like.

Contemporary philosophers like Robert Nozick, John Rawls, Michael Oakshott and others, while
emphasizing the issue of human rights, have challenged both the liberal and the socialist visions
of rights.

 Philosophically viewed, the notion of human rights, in a general way, revolves round a number of
principles. The first and foremost of them is the theory of natural law under which human beings
were supposed to have natural rights. Closely following this, comes the concept of common good
and justice which actually formed the foundation of ancient Greek philosophy. The concepts of
justice, virtue and rights of the individuals formed the backbone of the theory of human rights in
the Greek political philosophy. It is found in Aristotle’s Politics how the concepts like justice,
virtue and rights change in accordance with different kinds of constitutions and circumstances.
Aristotle advocated that rather than focusing on business, war or enslavement, states and laws
should aim at encouraging leisure, peace and common good.

During the age of Enlightenment, the human rights discourse developed a new method of
understanding and realisation through the notion of natural rights. In fact, Thomas Hobbes, while
attempting to provide his political ideas, laid emphasis on the role of the state in terms of secular
concepts. The entire philosophical and theoretical formulation by Hobbes aimed at protecting
individual rights to life and security. Similarly Locke and Rousseau constructed the entire theory
for securing individuals’ natural rights to political representation, property and equality before the
law. Others like Hugo Grotius, Abbe Charlesde, Saint- Pierre, Thomas Pains, and Immanuel Kant
further developed the concept by giving an international dimension to it. It has been rightly
observed by R.M. Ishay: “But despite Hobbes’ minimal standard of what constitutes basic rights,
he, by basing sovereignty on natural rights, leading to what was later called the first generation of
civil and political rights.”

On the other hand, to Locke, governments are legitimate only in so far as they preserve
fundamental rights acquired in the state of Nature. These include the right to life, liberty and
property. According to Michael Freedom, the modern conception of rights as moral constraints on
governmental action which require institutional realisation thus owes much to Locke.

Rousseau went a step further by asserting that the right to control individual action belongs not to
any individual or group of individuals but to the whole community. His idea of General Will
symbolises the power of the people in general which has been created by the people themselves
through their collective action.