GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

564
POLITICS
God. Similarly, the feet that no historian has ever been
able to point to the signing of an historical contract, would
not invalidate the conclusion that an implied contract was
a logical presupposition of the existence and functioning
of society. If a geometrical figure is found to have three
internal angles which are equal to two right angles, the
feet justifies us in concluding that the figure in question is a
triangle. But nobody wishes to argue that the feet of its
being a triangle precedes in time the feet of its having
three angles which are equal to 180. The two facts logically
entail one another, but they do not succeed one another.
Similarly, the feet that the existence of societies .entails
a willingness on the part of individuals to live in society
does not mean that this willingness ever expressed itself
in a definite contract to form society, or that the societies
which actually exist to-day were formed as the result of
such a contract
To What are There Rights? If the notion of an
historical contract is dropped, the doctrine of Natural
Rights loses much of its plausibility. The doctrine is, it is
obvious, a product of the same type of a priori reasoning
as the Social Contract theory with which it has been
historically associated. A "right" is an abstract sort
of thing which derives its nature and authority from no
more impressive source than the mind of the thinker
who conceives it. As one reads the advocates of Natural
Rights, one feels a certain sympathy with the critic who
asked to be shown a right.
For what rights are there, and how are they to be
discovered? There seems to be on way of determining the
answers to these questions. Theorists can and do announce
that there are such and such rights to such and such
privileges; they even make lists of rights, but they are
at a loss to give reasons for the inclusion of any particular
right upon their list. Ifwe press them to do so, they respond
with a number of divergent dogmatisms which are sup-
ported by nothing but the convictions of their authors.