Does it dictate us?

No, natural law is what humans wrote down as an observation of mutually beneficial behavior

It's like saying scientists are obliged to follow the scientific method

They just *do it* as a quality of BEING a scientist

Do they not also do it because if they claim something without using the scientific method said claim is disregarded by the scientific community?

Basically making it essential for a scientist

Well yeah, it helps, but if they don't "use it", then they're not really doing science in the first place.

A self-respecting one that is

It was a half assed metaphor anyways, but you get my point. It's a chicken/egg thing

Yeah

Regarding the law thing, I think most are made out of interest

Like I said, property rights could be seen as people with property wanting protection for their shit without them having to guard it 24/7

Thus making a law for it so that they can prosecute someone violating their property rights

No, not really at all

It's more like "What are some common denominators that are considered 'OK' for people to be violent over?"

Life, Liberty, Property

In any of those situations, the common person would be like "Oh, okay, I understand. Yeah, he's free to go."

So, in a sense, "natural rights" although existing in a hypothetical 'Natural stateless society' still presupposes that there *is indeed a society.*

Natural rights do not exist in a vacuum.

Yes, they need people and they need an organized society

Because if there are certain rights you need to be able to guarantee them

Not what I meant, tbh

And if there are certain laws you need to be able to enforce them

Let me rephrase: Natural rights presuppose that there is someone around to violate them in the first place.

There could be, but there is no guarantee that there is

Stop and rethink that

What I meant is that there is no absolute guarantee that there will be someone around to violate said rights

There very well could be though

okay, I feel like we're talking past each other here

Yeah same

My take on natural rights/laws is that for them to be natural, they need to be inherent to people

I'm supposing that you are the literal last man on earth.

You now have no need for natural rights, because there's no one to violate them.

That is a pretty solid statement, can’t argue with it

I think its an important place to start from

Add in a second person, and what happens?

The only reason you would ever defend yourself against them is for your life, liberty, or your property.

There's your natural rights. The mutually agreed upon reasons for instigating violence.

That is also true

But I just thought of something regarding the laws and rights situation

You would need at least 3 people for such systems to work

Since you have two people against each other, but you’d also need a neutral arbiter to break the stalemate

Why?