Schools of Thought in Classical Liberalism, Part 5: Natural Rights

Nigel Ashford

Dr. Nigel Ashford is senior program officer at the Institute for Humane Studies. He joined IHS from the United Kingdom where he was a professor of politics at Staffordshire University.

Do all people have natural rights? Philosophers Ayn Rand and Robert Nozick think so. Dr. Nigel Ashford examines the “natural rights” school of thought, in particular the theories of Rand and Nozick. Nozick and Rand both argue that government should never infringe upon our natural rights, and that government exists only to protect these natural rights. They also find that capitalism is the only moral economic system because it is based on voluntary exchange, not coercion.

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