A Basis for Moral Rights

How Do we know that People

Have Rights
A person has a legal right because the person
lives within a legal system that guarantees
those rights
Utilitarian principles can provide a basis for
moral rights. They have argued that people
have moral rights because having moral rights
maximizes utility
 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
A more satisfaction foundation for moral
rights is provided by the ethical theory
developed by Kant
He attempts to show that there are certain
moral rights and duties that all human beings
posses regardless of any utilitarian benefits
that exercise of those rights and duties may
provide for others
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Kant’s theory is based on a moral principle

that he called the categorical imperative and
that requires that everyone should be treated
as a free person equal to everyone else
Everyone has moral right to such treatment
and everyone has the correlative duty to treat
others in this way
The first formulation of Kant’s
Categorical Imperative
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I ought never to act except in such a way
that I can also will that my maxim (The
reason a person in a certain situation has for
doing something he or she plans to do)
should become a universal law.

An action is morally right for a person in certain situation if

and only if the persons reason for carrying out the action is
a reason that he or she would be willing to have every
person act on, in any similar situation
Kant Then So Called Golden Rule

Do unto others as you would

have them do unto you
 The Second Formulation of
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Act in such a way that you always treat
humanity, whether in your own person or in
the person of any other, never simply as a
means, but always at the same time as an
end
Or never treat people only as means but
always also as ends
 What Kant’s Means….
a. Respect each person freedom by treating
that person only as she has freely and
rationally consented to be treated
b. Contribute to each person’s ability to
pursue those ends she has freely and
rationally chosen to pursue
 Problems with Kant
Kants theory critics like utilitarianism it has
limitations and inadequacies.
First problem that kants theory is not clear
enough to always be useful
Second problem we might be able to agree on the
kinds of interest that have the status of moral
rights, what the limits of each these rights are and
concerning how each of these rights should be
balanced against other conflicting rights
The Libartarain Objection: Nozick
According to Nozick, Prohibiting people from
coercing others constitutes a legitimate moral
constraints that rests on “the underlying
Kantian principle that individual are ends and
not merely means they may not be sacrificed
or used for the achieving of others ends
without their consent ”
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It is not obvious that Kant’s principles can
support the libertarian views of nozick. Kant
holds as we saw that we should respect the
dignity of every person and contribute to
each persons ability to pursue the ends
they have freely and rationally chosen to
pursue