Rethinking Rights

Eleanor Curran

doi:10.5771/9781498547888

Summary

Re-thinking Rights: Historical Development and Philosophical Justificationtakes a new look at the history of individual rights, focussing on the way that philosophers have written that history. The scholastics and early modern writers used the notion of natural rights to debate the big moral and political questions of the day, such as the treatment of Indigenous Americans under Spanish rule. John Locke put natural rights at the centre of liberal political thought. But as the idea grew in strength and influence, empiricist and positivist philosophers punctured it with attacks of logical incompetence and illegitimate appeals to theology and metaphysics. Philosophers then turned to law and jurisprudence for the philosophical analysis of rights, where it has largely stayed ever since. Eleanor Curran argues that the dominance of the Hohfeldian analysis of (legal) rights has restricted our understanding of moral and political rights and led to distorted readings of historical writers on rights. It has also led to the separation of right from the important related notion of liberty—freedoms are now seen as inferior to claims. Curran looks at recent philosophy of human rights and suggests a way forward for justifying universal moral and political rights and separating them from legal rights.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4985-4787-1
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4985-4788-8
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 166
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Acknowledgements No access
4. Introduction No access
1. 1. 1. The Subjective Turn No access
    2. Ius and Dominium—Active and Passive Rights No access
  2. The Relationship of Early Natural Rights Theories to Natural Law No access
  3. Conflicting Views of the Relationship between Natural Rights and Natural Law No access
  4. What Is New and Significant in the Notion of “Natural Rights?” No access
  5. Examples from Early Writing on Natural Rights No access
  6. 1. 1. The Alienability of Natural Rights No access
      2. Concluding Thoughts on Grotius No access
  7. 1. 1. Royalists No access
      2. Parliamentarians No access
  8. 1. American Declaration of Independence—July 4, 1776 No access
    2. French Declaration of the Rights of Man No access
  9. Notes No access
2. 1. Hume’s Attack on Natural Law No access
  2. 1. Marx’s Criticism of Individual Rights No access
  3. The Defence of Natural Law and Natural Rights No access
  4. Natural Rights Do Not Come from or Depend Upon Theories of Natural Law No access
  5. Concluding Thoughts on the Philosophical Discrediting of Natural Law and Natural Rights No access
  6. Notes No access
3. 1. The Rights Theories of Hobbes and Locke as Written in History No access
  2. Hobbesian Rights and Duties No access
  3. Rights in Locke’s Theory No access
  4. Rights in Hobbes’s Theory No access
  5. 1. Relationship to Current Discussions of Rights No access
  6. Conclusion No access
  7. Notes No access
4. 1. Rights in Law No access
  2. 1. 1. Claim No access
      2. Privilege (Liberty) No access
      3. Power No access
      4. Immunity No access
    2. The Significance of the Claim Right No access
  3. 1. The Significance of Hohfeld’s Analysis No access
    2. 1. The “Will” or “Choice” Theory of Rights No access
      2. The “Interest” or “Benefit” Theory of Rights No access
    3. Established Criticism of the Will and Interest Theories No access
    4. Changes in the Philosophy of Rights No access
  4. Notes No access
5. 1. The Hohfeldian Reading of Hobbes’s Theory of Rights No access
  2. Notes No access
1. 1. Questioning the Application of Hohfeld’s Scheme to Moral and Political Rights No access
  2. 1. Rights (claims) are Distinct from Liberties (privileges) No access
  3. Must there be Strict Correlativity of Rights and Duties for Moral and Political Rights? No access
  4. Rights Express Values within a Theory of Political Morality No access
  5. Notes No access
2. 1. Will and Interest Theories No access
  2. Moving beyond the Impasse No access
  3. Finding Value in Rights Theory—Human Rights No access
  4. 1. Agency/Autonomy No access
    2. Fundamental Interests and Dignity No access
    3. Basic Needs No access
    4. A Good Life No access
  5. Assessing Competing Accounts of Grounding Concepts for Human Rights No access
  6. The Relationship of Human Rights Theorists to Hohfeld No access
  7. Notes No access
3. 1. The Current State of Play No access
  2. 1. Rights of Assertion No access
    2. Rights of Aspiration No access
    3. Rights of Self-Preservation and Well-Being No access
    4. Rights of Legal or Social Organisation No access
  3. 1. The Concept of an Individual Right No access
    2. Human Nature—The Kind of Beings Humans Are No access
    3. The Moral Aspect to Duties Upholding Rights No access
  4. Rights No access
  5. Concluding Thoughts No access
  6. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 155 - 160
Index No access Pages 161 - 164
About the Author No access Pages 165 - 166