Rights Theories

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Rights Theories
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Rights

• American culture has been heavily influenced by
  the philosophical notion of rights
• We speak of both legal and moral rights
• Legal We have a right to public education
• Moral We have a right to know if a spouse is
  cheating on us

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Rights

• None of the early philosophers spoke of rights
• The idea of rights did not surface until the
  seventeenth century

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What is a right?

• There is no general agreement as to what rights
  people actually have
• It is often difficult to distinguish legal rights
  from moral rights pornography example
• Ronald Dworkin defines a right as a sphere of
  activity or an area of ones life protected from
  outside interference
• You should be able to do what you want with your
  money without outside interference

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Rights

• However, many westerners claim to have rights
  that do not fit this definition
• Dworkins definition is too narrow
• An additional definition of rights entails the
  idea that a burden is placed on society
• Right to affordable housing
• Right to vote
• In the above examples, the rights of individuals
  depend upon some action of others, not just the
  lack of interference

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John Locke

• British philosopher who lived from 1632-1704
• Locke had a profound influence on American
  society
• Locke maintains that our natural rights are
  God-given
• Locke claimed that all people are endowed by God
  with a number of basic rights, most notably the
  right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
  property

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John Locke

• Locke equates human reason to natural law
• He claims that if we follow our reason we will
  see that roughly all humans have the same basic
  capacities (five senses, memory, reason,
  imagination, etc.)
• If this is the case than no person can naturally
  be the property of another and no one is
  authorized to take the life of another
• So, all humans have a right to life and liberty
• For Locke, God is the owner of all human life so
  anyone who murders or enslaves another is taking
  Gods property and defying Gods wishes
• So human rights are founded in the authority of
  God and the laws of nature He has instilled in
  human beings

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John Locke

• Private property
• God gave everything in the natural world to
  humanity in general no tree, cow, land, etc.
  was given to a specific individual
• When someone adds his labor to something in the
  natural world, that something becomes his
  property
• Locke argues that prior to the addition of human
  labor, most things in the natural world are
  useless

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Tom Regan

• Regan believes people (and animals) have rights
  not because they are given by God, but because of
  some capacity they possess
• Humans and animals are experiencing subjects of
  life. This is the foundation for rights.
• Regan says both humans and animals have inherent
  value in themselves and not necessarily because
  of their usefulness to others

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Tom Regan

• Regan asks what quality all humans have in common
  that makes them valuable and worthy of having
  rights
• He says if we were to ground our rights in the
  ability to reason or make informed choices, etc.,
  then we would have to conclude that humans who
  cannot perform those functions (infants,
  disabled) would not have the same rights as
  others.
• Regan concludes that the quality of being
  experiencing subjects of life is the
  characteristic that connects humanity
• This Characteristic also relates to animals and
  thus animals have rights as well as humans

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John Rawls

• Rawls was a Harvard professor of philosophy and
  lived from 1921-2003
• Rawls claimed that our rights are grounded in a
  social contract agreement among the people in
  a community about what rights they have
• Rawls suggested that if a society were to be
  truly just, the free and rational citizens of the
  society would formulate their principles from
  behind a Veil of Ignorance

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John Rawls

• Rawls claimed that if people formed their
  principles from behind a Veil of Ignorance then
  they would come up with two principles
• First Principle Each person is to have an equal
  right to the most extensive total system of basic
  liberty compatible with a similar system of
  liberty for all
• Second Principle Social and economic
  inequalities are arranged so that they are both
• A. to the greatest benefit of the least
  advantaged
• B. attached to offices and positions open to all
  under conditions of fair equality of opportunity

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John Rawls

• The first principle is familiar to American
  people should be able to do whatever they choose
  provided it does not interfere with other
  peoples ability to do whatever they choose
• The second principle asserts that equal
  opportunities should be available to all, but it
  acknowledges that some people will achieve more
  than others, and this is acceptable as long as it
  benefits society as a whole (for example it
  benefits society as a whole to value medical
  doctors because it improves healthcare for
  everybody)

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Rights and Catholic Christianity

• Catholic Christianity recognizes that the Church
  does not confer rights to people rights are
  given by God (prior to society)
• Catholic Christianity asserts that human rights
  belong to human nature and are inherent in the
  person

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Differences

• Too much attention on rights can diminish the
  idea of responsibility Good Samaritan Laws
• The language of rights cannot capture the
  richness and complexity of human relationships