On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:35:29 -0800 (PST), Quadibloc
wrote:

On Monday, January 29, 2018 at 4:59:12 PM UTC-7, Chris L Peterson wrote:

Human rights are human inventions, that do not exist separate from our
culture. They may be claimed by those who are strong enough to defend
them, they may be granted by rulers. But there are no naturally
occurring rights. Not a one. Rights are whatever a society defines
them to be.

But then how is it we can criticize a society for being perverse,
because it mistreats some of the people within its reach?

I do not universally criticize societies for doing this.

Basically, rights are what the ideal society would define them to be.
What other societies define are an imperfect reflection of what rights
are.

I disagree, given that there is no "ideal society". The best human
society in terms of our success as a species may turn out to be a
single brilliant autocrat who simply kills every other person who
fails to fulfill his given role well enough.