Dr. Francis Beckwith of Baylor University visited Texas State on Thursday, February 11th to deliver a lecture on “Where Do Natural Rights Come From?” In the lecture, Dr. Beckwith defended the existence of natural rights. He rejected the possibility that rights came from chance, fortune, or social construction. Instead, he argued that natural rights derive from human nature itself. Thirty students and faculty members attended via Zoom, while another twenty attended face-to-face.
Undergraduate Zachary Poston commented that he enjoyed Dr. Beckwith’s “knowledge of both the founders and the ancient world” and the “deep respect” and “passion” he displayed “for the humanities and a liberal education as a whole,” and that he particularly “enjoyed” Beckwith’s “command of his subject.”
The Department of Political Science co-sponsored the event with the Thomistic Institute, a student group that studies the thought of Thomas Aquinas. For information about the Thomistic Institute, please contact Dr. Varacalli at tfv2@txstate.edu.
