Seventeenth-century rights theory defined humanity as capacity for punishment-awareness.

Evidence

Only the former had an awareness that punishment was attached to the violation of a moral or legal rule—including an active right—hence only humans could have natural rights. Conversely, only subjects who possessed rights could be regarded as human. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 635

Categorization

• DEFINE: Selden’s formulation turns punishment into the very criterion of humanity—rights and the fear of sanction mutually constitute the human.