• DOI:10.1086/290384
• Corpus ID: 146947314

The Rights of Man and Natural Law

@article{Knight1944TheRO,
  title={The Rights of Man and Natural Law},
  author={Frank Hyneman Knight},
  journal={Ethics},
  year={1944},
  volume={54},
  pages={124 - 145}
}

• F. Knight
• Published 1 January 1944
• Philosophy
• Ethics

A A student of theoretical economics the writer constantly faces problems of "methodology," of the concepts and presuppositions involved in generalized description and interpretation of social phenomena, where motivation of behavior cannot be ignored. This discipline also stands in a peculiarly close connection with the problems of social action-i.e., of the procedure by which a human group acts as a unit-and the meaning of group objectives. All these are essentially philosophical rather than scientific problems, in the sense of ordinary usage, in which there is a contrast between the two. In this situation it is natural to seek help from specialists in philosophy, a discipline supposedly concerned with these issues, which was age-old when any of the social sciences now recognized began to be cultivated. But the results of this quest are disappointing. The philosophers typically seem ignorant of and indifferent to facts which are essential to any understanding of the problems. What they have to say is so remotely relevant to the issues that it is often fairly to be characterized as empty verbiage or sheer absurdity. The book which gives its title to this article' is such an excellent illustration of this situation, such a "good bad example," as to justify reviewing, and quoting, at a length disproportionate to its own, and using it as a basis for an attempt to sketch a serious discussion of the vitally important issues with which it purports to deal. The author calls his book (in the first sentence) "an essay in political philosophy," and that, rather than a "review" is the in-