Authors: Tara Smith
ISBN-13: 9780847680276, ISBN-10: 0847680274
Format: Paperback
Publisher: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Inc
Date Published: June 1995
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Seeking a way out of today's bewildering rush of rights claims, Tara Smith's "Moral Rights and Political Freedom" offers a systematic account of the nature and foundations of rights. The book carefully elucidates what political freedom is and demonstrates why it should be protected by rights. Smith's thesis is that rights are teleological: respect for freedom is necessary for individuals' flourishing or "eudaimonia." Smith illustrates how many alleged rights would actually undermine that objective. Her decisive refutation of the assumption that conflicts between rights are inevitabledemonstrating how such conflicts are theoretically incoherent and practically self-defeatingshould go a long way toward resolving many contemporary disputes about rights.
Author Biography: Tara Smith is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas in Austin.
Acknowledgments | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
1 | What Rights Are | 15 |
2 | The Justification of Rights | 31 |
3 | The Egoism of Rights | 61 |
4 | The Failures of Deontology and Consequentialism | 85 |
5 | Teleological Rights: Purpose Through Principle | 101 |
6 | Freedom | 123 |
7 | Freedom's Nemesis: Physical Force | 141 |
8 | "Positive" Freedom | 165 |
9 | The Rights We Hold | 185 |
Selected List of Works Consulted | 211 | |
Index | 221 | |
About the Author | 225 |