What do we mean by inalienable human rights? What is the basis for those rights? These 24 lectures explore the concept of human nature and how it forms the basis for natural rights philosophy. Throughout, you'll consider the arguments for natural law, the serious objections that have been raised against it, and the ways, despite all overt criticisms, it remains a vital and even pervasive force in political, moral, and social life today, even while traveling under another name. Shaping this historical treatment is an appreciation of just how much thought, effort, and brilliance went into formulating and defending the crucial insights of natural law theory. You'll start in the ancient world, where Father Koterski reconstructs the virtual dialogue that took place between the Ionian scientists, the Sophists, and their great interlocutors, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. From there, you'll witness the rise of Stoic philosophy, with its emphasis on universal human dignity and divine providence, and the powerful contributions made by biblical religion. Next, you'll investigate the major developments that natural law thinking has undergone since the inception of the modern period about half a millennium ago, including its revolution in the hands of Hobbes and Locke, the ways America's Founding Fathers poured natural law thinking into the foundations of the republican experiment, and the ways natural law arguments might apply to a range of hotly debated contemporary issues.
