The history of the origins of human rights in Greek philosophy, Roman law, and in the Hebrew Bible

Eckart  Otto

Eckart Otto Ludwig Maximilians-Universität Munich, 80539 München, Germany

Article ID: 208

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Keywords: human rights; democracy; natural law; divine law; Stoic philosophy; Plato; Aristotle; Cicero; Rousseau; Thomas Hobbes; Richard Hooker; Hebrew Bible; ius gentium; Corpus Iuris; Mesopotamian mythology

Abstract

The fact that man ascribes to himself an inviolable dignity and inalienable rights as human rights represents a high point in the process of gaining a subject consciousness of modern man that goes back to Greek antiquity. However, the political aspects of human rights as defensive rights against the state can not only to be traced back to the development of democracy in Athens and the reception of stoic philosophy in Rome, but also to a Hebrew antiquity in Jerusalem and the Judean resistance to Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian supremacy powers, which is reflected in Torah and prophecy in the Hebrew Bible.

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