1. Ch 7: The Ethics of Rights Contemporary Theories

2. Rights: Initial Distinctions Rights holders: permission to act, an entitlement Rights observers: duty or obligation – Negative – refrain from interfering with rights holder’s exercise of the right (freedom of speech) – Positive – assist in the successful exercise of the right (housing, education, health care) Responsibility on the part of the rights holder about how to exercise the right – right limited by harm to others.

3. Classifications of Strength Absolute rights - cannot be overriden by other types of considerations that do not involve rights – (not to be tortured?) Prima Facie rights – at first glance it appears applicable but may be outweighed by considerations

4. Justification of Rights Self-evidence: seem obvious but usually an unhelpful category in settling disputes. Divine foundations: natural rights founded in God. A source of claim against the crown and part of the deep structure of the world. Not viable for nontheists and no language of rights in religious traditions. Natural law: natural order is fundamentally good (created by God). No basis again for nontheists. Human nature: characteristics essential to humans confer rights

5. Human Nature and Human Rights Rights conferring properties of humans include The fact of being born a human being Rationality, the ability to think Autonomy, the ability to make free choices Sentience, the ability to feel and suffer The ability to be a “self” or person The ability to have projects and plans

6. Who has rights? Future generations: we think of rights belonging only to existing individuals. Animals: do they have rights conferring properties? Sentience, interests, free will, rationality? What rights do animals have?

7. What rights do we have? Negative Rights: Liberty: political movements Life: no one entitled to kill us: capital punishment, abortion, war, animal rights to life, end of life Property: Equality: civil rights Positive Rights Rights to well-well being: physical security, employment, goods necessary for subsistence. Social contract rights: belonging to particular societies at particular times – rights of persons with disabilities,

8. The Limits of Rights Talk Nonsense on stilts – rights are moral fictions embedded in particular societies, not universal. Are rights basic or just useful for society and result of decisions about how society will be governed. Rights emphasize isolated autonomy Liberty – each person as an island Privacy Exclusive emphasis on rights distorts total vision of moral life.

9. Role of Rights in Moral Life Minimum conditions for the flourishing of a moral community. Check against possible abuses of human dignity – the minimum daily requirement in the nutrition metaphor. One of several standards of value. What we minimally owe one another.