April 3,
2025
Self-Evident Rights
To say that something is self-evident means that everyone believes it (even if it may later turn out to be false). For example, no one doubts that 2+2=4, that we need food but too much of it is harmful, or that a society always requires rules.
Now, if rights were truly self-evident, they would be universally accepted. However, this is not the case: they vary enormously across time and space, depending on vastly different contexts, and even today, in the West, they are far from being unanimously agreed upon.