John Feidberg: The Nature and Value of Rights
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What I expect to learn:
In this chapter, I expect to learn more about the importance of one’s right and know how to respond and defend my own right.
Quote:
“The sovereign, to be sure, had a certain duty to treat his subjects well, but this duty was owed not to the subjects directly, but to God, just as we might have a duty to a person to treat his property well, but of course no duty to the property itself but only to its owner.”
Review:
In this chapter, Feinberg wants to demonstrate that rights are really significant. He started the article by giving an example of a place called Nowheresville. It is a place that no one has rights and because of that, people in this place cannot make moral claims when other people treated them unjustly. They cannot ask for justice, they cannot even demand or claim fair treatment, and as a result they are deprived of self-worth and self-respect. Feinberg also explains the doctrine of the logical correlativity and here I think his idea and Kant’s idea are somewhat connected. I think what he wants to point there is that all duties are related with the rights of those to whom duty is due or owed. I really like one sentence in Feinberg’s article that says: “The sovereign, to be sure, had a certain duty to treat his subjects well, but this duty was owed not to the subjects directly, but to God, just as we might have a duty to a person to treat his property well, but of course no duty to the property itself but only to its owner.” I like that passage because that simply means that we people must love and respect each other’ rights for God created us all and all must protect and help each other. In addition to that, Fienberg also discussed the concept of the personal desert which I think means that we people needs to show appreciation. It is something that if other people treated us right, we must do something in return not because it is our responsibility but because it is the right thing to do. As a conclusion, I think what Feinberg wants to say is that we all need to be treated fair and be worthy for others.
What I have learned:
I’ve learned in this chapter that we all have duties and those duties correspond to our certain rights. We all need to be treated fair. Every action we made corresponds to a duty so if we want to be treated nicely we must be nice as well. Another thing is that, we cannot gain world peace without rights.
Integrative questions:
- What is logical correlativity of rights and duties?
- What is Nowheresville?
What is the importance of having your own rights
