The U.S. Declaration of Independence states "all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
"[The Founders] were not naïve or inept," writes Hoover research fellow Tibor R. Machan, in his introduction to a new collection of essays, Individual Rights Reconsidered: Are the Truths of the U.S. Declaration of Independence Lasting? (Hoover Press, 2001). He explains: "The main reason that in the American political tradition there is so much concern with individual liberty is that within that tradition the importance of the human individual is supposed to be fully acknowledged."
Yet, Machan finds that "there really are quite a few influential and sincere people who do believe that what the Founders declared to be so is false or at best seriously confused."
Along with Machan, the four contributors to Individual Rights Reconsidered examine whether these principles continue to have universal significance. Their essays explore the language of the rights in the Declaration of Independence, deciphering the intent of the Founders, as well as exploring the meaning their words hold today. The authors probe arguments for and against these rights in the context of modern realities and ongoing, almost constant technological change.
"A lot of prominent thinkers maintain . . . that there are a great many other ways of looking at human lives that are much more sensible than the idea that individuals are sovereign beings with rights," writes Machan.
Still, the ideas of the Founders continue to be well grounded and difficult to reject.
"Each person's sovereignty—his or her creative, self-governing, and inventive nature—must be respected and, if need be, competently protected. This is indispensable for civilized social life," writes Machan.
In answering the innumerable criticisms advanced against the political philosophy of natural individual human rights over the last two centuries, the authors in Individual Rights Reconsidered find that "America's original and essentially libertarian political stance, based on individual rights, has a great deal of merit and stands up successfully to its challengers."
Tibor R. Machan is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor at the Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University. His writings have appeared in the Humanist, the National Review, Barron's, the American Scholar, and numerous daily newspapers throughout the country.
The Hoover Institution, founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the 31st president of the United States, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic and international affairs.
