Privacy is a conception that is much under discussion in America today because of the perception that we are losing much of our privacy in an age of computer surveillance and intrusion. The concept of privacy might seem a simple one to most of us, but in fact the very idea of privacy is viewed in different ways in different cultures, some of which do not even have the concept of privacy at all.
Most Western nations share our general idea of privacy, as can be seen in the fact that the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which embodies a conception of human rights, includes a provision regarding privacy. There are differing conceptions of what human rights are and how they can or cannot be protected. Much of the history of the discussion of rights as described by Cranston shows that there has been a battle between supporters of natural rights and supporters of positive rights, as if the two had to be mutually exclusive. Yet, in a document like the Universal Declaration, positivist assertions are made for natural rights, offering moral statements requiring that natural rights be upheld. Cranston notes that in the early articles of the Universal Declaration, the language is the language of the old natural rights tradition:
The rights to life, liberty, property, equality, justice, and the pursuit of happiness are spelled out in twenty articles, which name, among other things, the right to freedom of movement; the right to own property alone as well as in association with others; the right to marry; the right to equality before the law and to a fair trial if accused of any crime; the right to privacy; the right to religious freedom; the right to free speech and peaceful assembly; the right to asylum. Among the institutions outlawed are slavery, torture, and arbitrary detention (Cranston 33).
In a discussion of family therapy in Japan, the authors note,
There are some conceptual words in English and...