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Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

314 Words2 Pages
Human rights rest upon two main principles: moral universalism and the belief in existence of a truly universal moral community that includes all human beings. The origins of moral universalism within Europe are accredited to the early philosophers Aristotle and the Stoics. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle came up with the argument in support of the existence of what we call a natural moral order. This natural order is said to be the basis for all truly rational systems of justice that provides a set of comprehensive and acclaimed universal criteria that is said to be capable enough to evaluate the legitimacy of the 'man-made' systems. Aristotle distinguishes between the ‘natural justice' and 'legal justice’ in the following words: “the
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