Ideas of Human Rights in Antiquity
| DOI | 10.1177/092405199901700302 |
| Published date | 01 September 1999 |
| Author | Alexander Gillespie |
| Date | 01 September 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Articles |
233
Part A: Articles
Ideas of Human Rights in Antiquity
Alexander Gillespie'
Abstract
Debates about what we currently consider to be human rights have their origins in the
beginnings
of
Western
philosophy. At this point thousands
of
years ago, questions and
answers were raised which may have direct relevance to some
of
the discussions which
currently surround this area.
Introduction
While the majority
of
the world remains concerned with violations of human rights, a
small minority
of
theorists have been engaged in battles over the exact nature of human
rights. These debates have pertained to the dividing line between the individual and the
State, laws that exist over and above the State, i.e. natural law.' These debates have also
been concerned with such issues as cultural relativism, democracy, equality and the ever
evasive issue of the nature
of
'justice' (the epi-centre of the entire debate).
It
is commonly
suggested that the roots may be traced back to the Enlightenment, although some
commentators suggest that they reach back to the early Renaissance.' However, it is my
contention that the origins of the debate on the nature
of
human rights are to be found in
Antiquity. I am acutely aware that there is a great difficulty in trying to make solid
arguments out
of
fragments from Antiquity, which are open to multiple interpretations
from both literal and contextual
accounts.'
Nevertheless, I belief that some broad trends
in human rights may be traced back to this epoch and that, accordingly, lessons from the
past may be learnt.
I Pre-Socratic Philosophy
A. Deductive Reasoning
The pre-Socratic philosophers commonly entertained ideas that came to be known as 'laws
of nature'. That is, they believed in eternal, unchanging laws which were applicable
everywhere at all times. This type
of
idea remains central to modem human rights
thinking, which proclaims such rights to be 'universal' and residing in the 'inherent
dignity' and 'inalienable rights of all members of the human family'."
Dr Alexander Gillespie is Senior Lecturer in Law, Waikato University, New Zealand. He would like tothank
Claire Breen for her excellent editing.
By natural law, I
mean
the manifestation
of
permanent, universal and unchanging principles, which, in a
modem context, is related to human rights.
A. MacIntyre, After Virtue, University
of
Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 1981, pp. 66-67.
See R. Robinson, Essays in GreekPhilosophy, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1969, pp. 75-80.
•Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly
Resolution 217 A (III)
of
10 December 1948.
Netherlands Quarterly
of
Human Rights, Vol. /7/3, 233-258, 1999.
iONetherlands Institute
of
Human Rights (SIM). Printed in the Netherlands.
NQHR
3/1999
The basis for this type
of
thinking evolved from both Pythagoras (d.497 B.C.) and
Euclid (323-285 B.C.) who introduced the idea
of
demonstratively deductive arguments
based on mathematics. Such knowledge started with axioms which were (or were deemed)
to be self-evident and proceeded by deductive reasoning to arrive at theorems which were
far from self-evident. This approach created a basis in argument which would change the
world by stressing its intelligibility - that is, that the world could be understood in
mathematical terms. Parmenides (b.5l4 B.C.), who was influenced by Pythagoras, built
upon the principles
of
deductive logic and introduced such fundamental laws
of
thinking
into his philosophy as principles of identity (an ancient ogito, ergo sumi? Parmenides'
thinking may be said to constitute the first example ofjormally deduce conclusions from
premises. Moreover, he split human abilities between those
of
the mind, and those
of
the
senses. Only the mind had the capacity for true certainties. Aspects
of
these approaches
radically influenced philosophy in the future.
The consequence of deductive reasoning was that it became possible to obtain a type
of
knowledge by reasoning and intellect (as opposed to reliance on the senses) that
appeared to be certain, exact, and applicable to the real world. Accordingly, it appeared
possible to discover things about the actual world by first noticing what was self-evident
and then by using deduction. This view influenced Plato (427-347 B.C.), Descartes (1596-
1650) and Kant (1724-1804) and most of the philosophers in between. Thus, when the
American Declaration
of
Independence (1776) declared
'we
hold these truths to be self-
evident', it was a declaration based upon the philosophies and mathematical methods of
Pythagoras and Euclid. The only difference between the American Declaration and the
early theories
of
geometry was that one looked for natural laws in mathematics, and the
other looked for it in politics.
B. Cosmic Justice
The pre-Socratic philosophers deduced ideas
of
cosmic justice (but not social justice) from
what they perceived to be natural laws. The central theme
of
this form
of
justice was
refraining from the disturbed the balance of eternally fixed boundaries. When the balance
of
these boundaries was in fact disturbed then it was believed that it should be re-aligned.
This was one
of
the most profound
of
Greek beliefs." Heracleitus (535-475 B.C.) was
5'There is. There is being. For Thinking and Being is the Same.' Fragments 2 and 3, noted in: M. Cleve, The
Giants
of
Pre-Sophistic Greek Philosophy, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1969, Vol. 2,pp. 527-530. For a
discussion of this approach, see A. Finkelberg, 'ParmenidesFoundation
of
the Way
of
Truth', OxfordStudies
in Ancient Philosophy, Vol. VI, 1988, pp. 39-47.
6For example, as Axaximander(610-514 B.C.) suggested 'and into those things from which existing things
take their rise, they pass away once more, according to just necessity for they render justice and reparation
to one another for their injustices according to the ordering of time'. Fragment I, reprinted in: 1. Barnes,
Early Greek Philosophy, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1987, p. 75. For a discussion of this, see G. Vlastos,
'Equality and Justice in Early GreekCosmologies', in: D. Furley and R. Allen (eds), Studies in Presocratic
Philosophy, Routledge, London, 1961, pp. 73-85.
234
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