ABSTRACT
The idea of 'natural rights' distinguishes Western approaches to human rights from Confucian and Islamic. Europe and United States introduced into the global flow ideas of equality and freedom that appear incongruent with their actions as nations. The emphasis on gender inequality and the domestic education of Sophie is central to Rousseau's desire to maintain the mutual interdependence of humans. The United States is a good example of how words like freedom and equality can be extended in meaning. In order to avoid future problems, it is important to understand how so-called rational Enlightenment thinkers could, without being hypocritical, limit concepts of equality to White men. The United States's Naturalization Act ensured that the Bill of Rights at the time of its adoption did not include Native Americans. The ideal of equality of opportunity was expressed in the following words by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice. Similar to equality of opportunity, 'equality before the law' can foster inequalities.
