Critique Of The Doctrine Of Inalienable, Natural Rights Essay

In â€Å"Critique of the Doctrine of Inalienable, Natural Rights†, Jeremy Bentham aims to show the reader why the Declaration of Rights is a troubling and terrible document, or as he describes it, a â€Å"dangerous nonsense†. In his critique, Bentham describes natural rights as â€Å"nonsense upon stilts† and says they do not exist, but they are actually made up. He then goes on to attack the Declaration’s vagueness and contradictions, saying it will lead to constant unrest. The Declaration, Bentham says, is condoning revolution and giving grounds for permanent revolution and by doing this, they diminish the roles of government and other future authority. Despite a few confusions, Bentham’s argument is successful because he proves the Declaration is full of confusions and contradictions that can lead to dangerous acts. Natural rights are something we should have, but they are not â€Å"natural† and instead made-up, as Bentham suggests. In Bentham’s preliminary observations, he calls out the overall problems of the Declaration. A huge problem with the Declaration is that since it is vague, it is essentially never-ending dangerous nonsense (p.2). Words can have many different meanings so if you aren’t specific, you can confuse people. In this case, confusion can lead to destruction. Its lack of specific guidelines is troubling. The people who speak of natural rights do not know what they’re talking about, but they still go on about how their rights cannot be taken away from them and theyShow MoreRelatedJohn Locke And John Rousseau1430 Words   |  6 Pagesfreedom to a sovereign, which he refers to throughout the text as the Leviathan. Men forge a social contract among themselves in which he gives up the rights afforded to him in the state of nature in exchange for protection. The Leviathan is a figure with absolute control. 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