SuiNeko wrote:
DFK! wrote:
SuiNeko wrote:
[edit: montes post popped in while I was typing this - it wasnt a response to his, but rather the more conservative posts preceding it]
Interesting.
So if we agree that natural rights may or may not exist in the absolute, but are expressed solely in their enforcement, acceptance and practical implementation by society at large, how do they differ from determined rights?
The difference between individual belief in, or government founded upon, principles of fluid rights or inherent rights is the critical distinction. Practical application is actually the most irrelevant part when it comes to larger policy, cultural, and theoretical issues.
It guides "right and wrong" when it comes to larger policy. Let us use healthcare as an example, and the "individual mandate."
Under a fluid rights foundation, one can easily justify a compulsion from government to purchase "insurance" to provide healthcare, because 1) failure to do so can theoretically undermine other individuals' ability to acquire care, and 2) because you have been "determined" to not have the right to decide whether to acquire the product.
Under an inherent rights foundation, one cannot justify said compulsion, because the right to determine for oneself whether to acquire a product is protected under the core rights.
But that seems to be more a desirable implementation outcome, rather than an intrinsic property of the rights themselves - now, I dont disagree; I think one of the primary 'goods' in a society is when major power bases compete, non destructively, amongst themselves; governmental, societal, corporate, religious, etc; such that none gain overwhelming dominance of the populous; preventing "them" redefining rights arbitrarily provides a comprehensible and consistent framework ("order") for folks to exist and hope to prosper in.
Please refine your pronoun usage, I'm not following you as to which is the more desirable implementation outcome to your mind.
SuiNeko wrote:
But that doesnt get to the nub of what Im asking; what makes a right 'inherent' rather than 'determined'...
Personal belief of individuals, often codified into national constitutions.
One cannot logically have a mix of both inherent and fluid or "determined" rights. The underlying belief systems do not align.
For example, the US Constitution is, in theory, grounded in inherent rights.
SuiNeko wrote:
So what does it mean to say its inherent? Just that its a right the advocate deems non negotiable? Or something intrinsic to the right and its nature itself?
I think the metaphysics of rights, based upon a natural rights stance, gets beyond the scope of an open forum, but the key to the discussion is that if one does believe in inherent rights, they must (if they are consistent) believe that violations of those rights are "wrong." In other words, it sets up a moral groundwork.
On the other hand, were an individual to believe in fluid or "determined" rights, it must logically follow that that individual is "ok" with actions we might currently call "immoral" or "wrong," provided that the determination has been made that certain "rights" are waved. Using a less graphic example than the Jewish Holocaust, let us examine slavery in the United States.
While the US Constitution was set up under the principles of inherent rights, slavery existed in the US, and cultural norms created subjugation of women. A logically consistent believer in natural rights would look back on that time and say that, while the US Constitution certainly provided an extremely "free" and "liberal" society, it violated the rights of a large percentage of the population at the time. This past behavior would therefore have been "wrong" and "immoral," because the rights themselves are inherent.
On the other hand, using the stance of Aizle, Monty, and perhaps some others here, were a logically consistent believer in fluid or "determined" rights to look back on the same period in history, they would say that the US Constitution did nothing "immoral" or "wrong," because it did not violate any rights, as those minority groups were not "determined" to have rights.
It is because of exactly this disparity that those who believe in natural rights have a strong distaste for both extraneous usage of the term "rights" in society, but also for the very idea of fluid rights.
All of this is of course separate from the actual practical enforcement and protection of rights under either viewpoint; I'm speaking simply in the abstract at this point.