Seneca on human rights in De beneficiis 3
Abstract
The paper discusses Seneca’s phrase ‘human rights’ (ius humanum) in On Benefits 3 and relates the passage to recent debates about human rights in Stoicism and ancient philosophy. I argue that the Latin phrase refers either to rights or to a law conferring rights. The difference between the passage and a common expectation for human rights lies in the kind of relation between right and duty. In Seneca’s passage the right does not in itself have a correlative duty on the part of other people, and yet it does, if exercised through benefactions, create a duty in others. By contrast, the relation between right and duty is usually expected to be unconditional.
Citation
Long , A G 2021 , ' Seneca on human rights in De beneficiis 3 ' , Apeiron , vol. 54 , no. 2 , pp. 189-201 . https://doi.org/10.1515/apeiron-2019-0019
Publication
Apeiron
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0003-6390Type
Journal article
Collections
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