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Single Idea 23835
[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 1. Basis of Rights
]
Full Idea
A right is effectual only in relation to its corresponding obligation, springing not from the individual who possesses it, but from others who consider themselves under an obligation to him. In isolation a man only has duties, and only others have rights.
Gist of Idea
People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them
Source
Simone Weil (The Need for Roots [1943], I 'Needs')
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'The Need for Roots' [Routledge 2002], p.3
A Reaction
This seems correct, and obviously refutes the idea that people have intrinsic natural rights. However, it may be our sense of what nature requires which gives rise to the obligations we feel towards others.
Related Idea
Idea 23836
Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives [Weil]
The
21 ideas
from 'The Need for Roots'
23843
|
Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display
[Weil]
|
23841
|
By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal
[Weil]
|
23837
|
Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words
[Weil]
|
23835
|
People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them
[Weil]
|
23836
|
Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives
[Weil]
|
23839
|
A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler
[Weil]
|
23842
|
Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party
[Weil]
|
23838
|
The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs
[Weil]
|
23840
|
A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society
[Weil]
|
23848
|
The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacreligious; beauty should nourish
[Weil]
|
23850
|
The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war
[Weil]
|
23849
|
Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light
[Weil]
|
23846
|
Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers
[Weil]
|
23847
|
Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population
[Weil]
|
23845
|
The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests
[Weil]
|
23844
|
The most important human need is to have multiple roots
[Weil]
|
23851
|
Education is essentially motivation
[Weil]
|
23854
|
Beauty is the proof of what is good
[Weil]
|
23853
|
Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality
[Weil]
|
23852
|
To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish
[Weil]
|
23855
|
Creation produced a network or web of determinations
[Weil]
|