Merold Westphal (1940)
Source: Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992), p. 35
"Humanity", Ch.VII, "Humanity: A Way Forward" Part VI
Merold Westphal (1940)
Source: Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992), p. 35
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American protestant theologian
The Mike Wallace Interview (1958)
Context: Freedom is necessary for two reasons. It's necessary for the individual, because the individual, no matter how good the society is, every individual has hopes, fears, ambitions, creative urges, that transcend the purposes of his society. Therefore we have a long history of freedom, where people try to extricate themselves from tyranny for the sake of art, for the sake of science, for the sake of religion, for the sake of the conscience of the individual — this freedom is necessary for the individual.
“Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.”
Ayn Rand book The Virtue of Selfishness
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
Zaman Ali (1993) Pakistani philosopher
Source: https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=co3AzQEACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Zaman+Ali%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVi-2e57jtAhWToVwKHUj0D3kQ6AEwAnoECAEQAg
Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017) Polish philosopher and sociologist
Quoted in Ziggy Stardust https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/703/ziggy-stardust, 2007
Henry George (1839–1897) American economist
Part I : Declaration, Ch. IV : Mr. Spencer's Confusion as to Rights
A Perplexed Philosopher (1892)
Context: Men must have rights before they can have equal rights. Each man has a right to use the world because he is here and wants to use the world. The equality of this right is merely a limitation arising from the presence of others with like rights. Society, in other words, does not grant, and cannot equitably withhold from any individual, the right to the use of land. That right exists before society and independently of society, belonging at birth to each individual, and ceasing only with his death. Society itself has no original right to the use of land. What right it has with regard to the use of land is simply that which is derived from and is necessary to the determination of the rights of the individuals who compose it. That is to say, the function of society with regard to the use of land only begins where individual rights clash, and is to secure equality between these clashing rights of individuals.
Aldous Huxley book Brave New World Revisited
Source: Brave New World Revisited (1958), Chapter 3 (p. 20)
Alfredo Rocco (1875–1935) Italian politician and jurist
Source: The Political Doctrine of Fascism (1925), p. 112
Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)
On the United States Declaration of Independence, and the United States Constitution at the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (4 July 1976)
1970s
Context: The Declaration was not a protest against government but against the excesses of government. It prescribed the proper role of government to secure the rights of individuals and to effect their safety and their happiness. In modern society, no individual can do this all alone, so government is not necessarily evil but a necessary good.
The framers of the Constitution feared a central government that was too strong, as many Americans rightly do today. The framers of the Constitution, after their experience under the Articles, feared a central government that was too weak, as many Americans rightly do today. They spent days studying all of the contemporary governments of Europe and concluded with Dr. Franklin that all contained the seeds of their own destruction. So the framers built something new, drawing upon their English traditions, on the Roman Republic, on the uniquely American institution of the town meeting.