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Natural Right and History CHARLES This book R. W A L G R E E N is THE also available UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION in a LECTURES clothbound edition from OF CHICAGO PRESS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright 1953 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published 1953. Fifth Impression 1965- First Phoenix Edition 1965. Printed in the United States of America FOREWORD F OR m a n y y e a r s the p o l i t i c a l p h i l o s o p h y of responsible government h a s been a neglected field in American pol i t i c a l science. Characteristic of t h i s period w a s the complete rejection o f n a t u r a l l a w , the standard b y w h i c h , t r a d i t i o n a l l y , government relations w e r e judged. L a w and r i g h t s e m a n a t e d from the states. Under democratic regimes it w a s held t h a t m a j o r i t y w i l l created l a w and granted r i g h t s . Beyond these, no restrictions of l a w could bind the sovereign state. In recent y e a r s t h a t peculiar twentieth-century phenomenon—the t o t a l i t a r i a n regime—revived among p o l i t i c a l philosophers the study o f the t r a d i t i o n a l i s t n a t u r a l l a w doctrine, w i t h i t s insistence upon l i m i t e d state a u t h o r i t y . T h i s w o r k of Professor Strauss, based upon h i s W a l g r e e n Foundation lectures, presents a keen a n a l y s i s of the p h i l o s o p h y of n a t u r a l r i g h t . It is a critique of certain modern p o l i t i c a l theories and an able presentation of basic principles of the t r a d i t i o n a l i s t point of v i e w . J E R O M E KERWIN Chairman v of the Walgreen Foundation PREFACE T HIS is an expanded version of six lectures w h i c h I d e l i v ered at the U n i v e r s i t y of C h i c a g o in October, 1949, under the auspices of the C h a r l e s R. W a l g r e e n Foundation. In prep a r i n g the lectures for p u b l i c a t i o n I h a v e tried to preserve their o r i g i n a l form as much as possible. I am grateful to the Charles R. W a l g r e e n Foundation and e s p e c i a l l y to its c h a i r m a n , Professor Jerome G. K e r w i n , for inducing me to present coherently my observations on the problem of n a t u r a l r i g h t . I am also grateful to the W a l g r e e n Foundation for generous clerical assistance. Some sections of t h i s study h a v e been published p r e v i o u s l y , e i t h e r in t h e i r present form or in a shorter version. Chapter i w a s published in the Review of Politics, October, 1950; chapter ii in Measure, spring, 1951; chapter i i i in Social Research, M a r c h , 1952; chapter v ( A ) in Revue internationale de philosophic, October, 1950; chapter v ( B ) in the Philosophical Review, October, 1952. I w i s h to t h a n k the editor of the Revue internationale de Philosophie for his k i n d permission to reprint. L. S. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS October 1952 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS 0 INTRODUCTION 1 I . NATURAL RIGHT AND THE HISTORICAL APPROACH . . . 9 I I . NATURAL RIGHT AND THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN FACTS AND VALUES 35 III. THE ORIGIN O F THE IDEA O F NATURAL RIGHT IV. CLASSIC NATURAL RIGHT . . . . 81 120 V . MODERN NATURAL RIGHT 165 A. HOBBES 166 B. LOCKE 202 V I . THE CRISIS OF MODERN NATURAL RIGHT 252 - A . ROUSSEAU B ' B