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Individual Rights Timeline


dream_weaver

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Here is a list compiled from a few Google searches and general knowledge of a few contributors to today's resources available on the development of individual rights throughout history.

Radio talk show host, Mark Scott, used to quip: "If you don't know your rights, you don't have any." So the question being addressed here is: What are the significant historical contributions that weighed in on the development of Individual Rights.

Here is the short list, as compiled.

Individual/Document Born Died Summary of contribution
Aristotle 384 BC 322 BC Peikoff's History of Philosophy Lecture t.b.d.
Marcus Tullius Cicero January 3, 106 BC December 7, 43 BC Right to/of Self Defense
Catholic Theologians 5th Century 15th Century notion of "Natural Rights"
Justinian's Digest 530 AD 533 AD Emperor Justinain's great codification
Gratian 1140 AD 1150 AD Decretum Gratiani
Magna Carta June 15, 1215   Signed
John Locke August 29, 1632 October 28, 1704 Natural Rights
Thomas Paine February 9, 1737 June 8, 1809 Common Sense, Rights of Man
U.S. Constitution September 17, 1787 June 21, 1788 Created/Ratified
John Stuart Mill May 20, 1806 May 8, 1873 Coined the term "Individualism"
Lysander Spooner January 19, 1808 May 14, 1887 unevaluated at this point
Ayn Rand February 2, 1905 March 6, 1982 Moral Basis for Individual Rights

This is a reference to a separate investigation along a similar line of inquiry: The History and Philosophy of Rights from which this short list is partially derived.

I recall Peikoff mentioning one more contributor from the lecture, but do not recall the specifics at this time.

Please add to this, as appropriate, restraining response to individual, dates if accessible, and brief of contribution.

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