R: You Have No Rights
R: You Have No Rights
Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room
Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), Samson Captured by the Philistines, 1619, oil on canvas, 191.1 x 236.9 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness number among the most recognizable of America's ideals. Yet many ideas and practices of rights have existed in societies among history. Some political structures promise only the right to life, some the right to property, and some no rights at all.
Yet are rights derived from politics? Are they intrinsic to the human person, integral to a society, or insubstantial constructs? How can societies operate when their members hold different ideas of rights?