Human Rights and “natural” State in the Foundation of Rights

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2177-7055.2015v36n71p133 This article intends to identify the metaphysical roots of projects of the foundation of human rights which incorporated genetically the doctrines of natural rights and call for an individual and anterior state to life in society to justify rights that not positivized in law. Based on the contractarian model of thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, the present article investigates the notion of “nature” contained behind the laws governing the natural state of men while questioning the methodological assumption of the individual – the free and rational human being – to legitimize the formulation of moral judgments and, especially, the enunciation of rights as human rights. The paper intended to show, in the end, that it makes no sense to approach human rights from the traditional notion of “nature”, as human nature is constituted from a collective context, and not from the individual – although the contemporary discussion about human rights is completely contaminated by the metaphysics of natural rights.

Keywords

• Direitos Humanos
• Direitos Naturais
• Natureza
• Indivíduo