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

SOVEREIGNTY AND NATURAL RIGHTS 565
To what, we ask, arc there rights? To "liberty, property,
security and resistance of oppression", Paine answers. But
how, one may ask, does he know? The question must be
put, for prime fade the assertion that Paine's rights do in
fact exist may easily be challenged. Take, for example,
the right to property. A socialist would say that no man
has a right to property unless he does socially useful work;
as Bernard Shaw has frequently announced, a man has
no right to consume without producing. Again, property
may be used in a manner injurious to the community, as
when a man Employs his capital to make a corner in some
socially valuable commodity; buys stretches of unspoiled
coastline, to which the public has hitherto had access, in
order to preserve them for his own exclusive enjoyment,
or to cover them with bungalows for his own profit; floods
the market with harmful drugs, or gains control of a
newspaper in order to debauch the public taste. A man's
right to property,, is, most people would, accordingly,
agree, subject to considerations of public utility. Again,
who are to be regarded as the natural possessors of rights?
Babies and lunatics? Possibly, but also possibly not! Even
the rights of a minor may be questioned. His right to
property, for example, is not admitted by the law, which
requires that it shall be held in trust until he ceases to be
a minor. Consider, again, Locke's statement that, as all men
are " equal and independent, no one ought to harm another
in his life, health, liberty or possessions ". The obvious comment
seems to be that whether one is or is not entitled to
harm another in these respects depends entirely upon circum-
stances. To adapt the question which Socrates puts to
Cephalus at the beginning of Plato's Republic, has a lunatic
the right to possessions which happen to include a revolver?
And y if one has borrowed the revolver, has one not a
right to harm him in respect of this " possession," by failing
to return it? Let us imagine the case of a beleaguered city
in which food is nujtniog short and there is fear that the
garrison may be starved before a relieving force makes
its appearance. Has a baby, a child, a woman or an old