Synopsis
A utilitarian dismantling of the French Declaration of Rights, attacking the very idea of imprescriptible natural rights as incoherent.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Public domainNatural rights are nonsense and imprescriptible natural rights are nonsense upon stilts, since real rights come only from actual law.
It insists that rights are creatures of positive legislation serving utility, not metaphysical entitlements that precede government.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Thomas Paine, Rights of Man.
Reading note
Read it clause by clause as a hostile commentary on the Declaration, since its structure tracks the document it attacks.
Best paired with
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man