Natural rights individualism and progressivism in American political philosophy
By: [edited by] Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., Jeffrey Paul
Series: Social philosophy and policy -- 292
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781107641945
Subjects: Natural law; Progressivism (United States politics); Political science; Philosophy; PHILOSOPHY / Political; Individualism
Description: "In 1776, the American Declaration of Independence appealed to "the Laws of nature and of Nature's God" and affirmed "these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness . . . ." In 1935, John Dewey, professor of philosophy at Columbia University, declared, "Natural rights and natural liberties exist only in the kingdom of mythological social zoology." These opposing pronouncements on natural rights represent two separate and antithetical American political traditions: natural rights individualism, the original Lockean tradition of the Founding; and Progressivism, the collectivist reaction to individualism which arose initially in the newly established universities in the decades following the Civil War"--
Notes: "The essays of this book have also been published without introduction and index, in the semiannual journal Social philosophy & policy, volume 29, number 2,"--