As I wrote earlier, the concept of rights arose from the study of the nature of man.
Sure would love to read the research report on this "study". Got a link?
heh,
rights change over time, according to prevailing thought.
back in ancient Athens, Slaves, Women and the insane (as if theres a difference between the three *Ducks*)certainly had different rights to the men, and all these were self evident at the time.
certainly even in the US constitution, originally slaves had far less rights then the white man. When were women allowed to vote?
indeed isnt it writted in one of the US founding documents that "we hold these truths to be self evident". This is a statement that a decision was taken on what rights would be. a decision was made by a select group, informed by prevailaing philosophies and political considerations. Often such agreed upon definitions of rights are codified in a constitution but not always. oh and these rights are clarified by our judicial systems, again decisions - nay even creations of man, informed by prevailing philosophies and political/social considerations
This is the nature of all rights, they are a creation of man, and subject to change at any moment. We can state the nice clean theory of what rights should be, or what we beleive them to be (our own creations, if you will, based on our own philosphies and histories) but the processes and structures around which rights are codified, protected and sometimes enforced are equally important.
