It seems apparent that the circumstances of existence in modern society are in many ways more restrictive of privacy than conditions in the past; we … - Glenn Negley

MAN, the thinking animal, seeks the revealing light which discloses to his curious eyes the nature of things. The ages of his history in which he learned he calls enlightened; the ages of intellectual sterility are dark. It is in the daylight that man moves and has his active being; yet there is beauty in the night, when the concealing cloak of darkness shrouds the harsh and sordid realities which appear in the penetrating light of day. Why should man not prefer to live in a world of night? Why does he not go to bed with the dawn, pull the covers over his head, and shut out the stark disillusion of a world revealed nakedly in the light?

ANALYSIS is the recognition and description of points-of-view which can be taken in the process of thinking about a problematic situation. To discuss the analysis of action is to make at the outset some kind of distinction between analysis and action. That we normally make some such distinction is patent; we admit that "thinking doesn't make it so." Problems are not solved merely by analysis; the active implementation of analytic solutions is what is meant by control, the direction of activity by thought. Many quibbling problems might be suggested by the distinction of analysis, control, and action; but we shall proceed upon the commonsense assumption that there is a distinguishable difference between the analysis of a problem and the effort to realize a solution of that problem in activity.

Philosophical literature has given scant attention to the problem of privacy as such; the framework of reference within which privacy has so recently and widely become a matter of controversy is a distinctly contemporary one. What has not been discussed, or at least made clear, is why privacy is commonly considered a right or a value to be protected by the law. There is no historical consensus, in philosophy, politics, or law, that it is such a right. Few philosophers would argue that privacy is a "natural" right or that the intrinsic nature of privacy establishes it as a legal right.