Intellectual and political change as the prerequisite
The idea of the human
rights was formulated particularly by the philosophers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
and Immanuel Kant.
However, it was not only the ideas of the philosophers that led to the institutionalization of the human rights in Europe.
At times,
these thinkers were in advance of their times, at other times, their theories reflected and interpreted what they observed already
to have taken place in the social changes of their age. It was only in the socio-cultural context of such changes – the dissolution of
feudal patterns of ruling and the rise of sovereign national states – that these philosophical ideas could develop their full impact.
Picture left:
Thomas Hobbes
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Picture middle:
The March on Versailles, Painting
Picture right:
John Locke
Immanuel Kant
