AI Overview You are referencing a classic cluster of philosophical and ethical debates surrounding natural rights, tradition, and theological ethics.Jeremy Bentham's "Nonsense on Stilts": The English utilitarian philosopher famously dismissed natural and imprescriptible rights as rhetorical fiction in his 1796 text Anarchical Fallacies. He argued that because rights did not exist prior to being written into law by a governing sovereign, claiming pre-legal "natural" rights was "nonsense on stilts".Alasdair MacIntyre & "Broomsticks": In his seminal 1981 book After Virtue, MacIntyre critiqued Enlightenment liberalism and modern rights theory. He notoriously argued that the belief in natural or human rights is "one with belief in witches and in unicorns", because there is no rational, objective way to verify that such abstract rights universally exist without a shared moral tradition.Stanley Hauerwas: A prominent contemporary Christian ethicist known for his pacifism and "virtue ethics." Hauerwas has frequently drawn on MacIntyre's critique of the liberal (rights-based) tradition, asserting that the church's primary duty is to be a distinct moral community rather than attempting to justify or redeem the secular, power-driven language of modern rights.For a deeper dive into the original text of Bentham's famous polemic, you can read Jeremy Bentham's Anarchical Fallacies on the Open Casebook. To explore MacIntyre's philosophical framework further, see After Virtue on Google Books.
AI Overview
You are referencing a classic cluster of philosophical and ethical debates surrounding natural rights, tradition, and theological ethics. [1, 2]
- Jeremy Bentham's "Nonsense on Stilts": The English utilitarian philosopher famously dismissed natural and imprescriptible rights as rhetorical fiction in his 1796 text Anarchical Fallacies. He argued that because rights did not exist prior to being written into law by a governing sovereign, claiming pre-legal "natural" rights was "nonsense on stilts".
- Alasdair MacIntyre & "Broomsticks": In his seminal 1981 book After Virtue, MacIntyre critiqued Enlightenment liberalism and modern rights theory. He notoriously argued that the belief in natural or human rights is "one with belief in witches and in unicorns", because there is no rational, objective way to verify that such abstract rights universally exist without a shared moral tradition.
- Stanley Hauerwas: A prominent contemporary Christian ethicist known for his pacifism and "virtue ethics." Hauerwas has frequently drawn on MacIntyre's critique of the liberal (rights-based) tradition, asserting that the church's primary duty is to be a distinct moral community rather than attempting to justify or redeem the secular, power-driven language of modern rights. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
For a deeper dive into the original text of Bentham's famous polemic, you can read Jeremy Bentham's Anarchical Fallacies on the Open Casebook. To explore MacIntyre's philosophical framework further, see After Virtue on Google Books. [1, 2]
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