The Declaration of the Rights of Man asserts certain rights that are universal and inherent to being human. It describes them as "unalienable," as does the American Declaration of Independence, but it further calls them the "natural and imprescriptible rights of man, and specifies that they are "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." While not all Enlightenment thinkers would have agreed that universal rights were part of the human condition, they certainly were asserted...
The Declaration of the Rights of Man asserts certain rights that are universal and inherent to being human. It describes them as "unalienable," as does the American Declaration of Independence, but it further calls them the "natural and imprescriptible rights of man, and specifies that they are "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." While not all Enlightenment thinkers would have agreed that universal rights were part of the human condition, they certainly were asserted by many, including Voltaire and Diderot.
The Declaration also claims that the only proper and legitimate government is founded on a contract between the people, and that its limits are therefore defined by those people. It asserts the right of revolution (unsurprisingly, since it was the product of a revolution) against governments that persistently abuse the liberties of the people. These ideas are often associated with the political writings of John Locke, who was enormously influential on Enlightenment philosophes. Statements like "law is the expression of the general will" in the Declaration of the Rights of Man are strongly influenced by the radical Enlightenment thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many fundamental concepts such as religious freedom, due process, and separation of government powers were also supported by Enlightenment thinkers.
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