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Single Idea 3775

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 1. Basis of Rights ]

Full Idea

When we call anything a person's right, we mean that he has a valid claim on society to protect him in the possession of it.

Gist of Idea

A right is a valid claim to society's protection

Source

John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism [1861], Ch.5)

Book Ref

Mill,John Stuart: 'Utilitarianism (including On Liberty etc)', ed/tr. Warnock,Mary [Fontana 1962], p.309

The 108 ideas from John Stuart Mill

7076 Mill wondered if he would be happy if all his aims were realised, and answered no [Mill, by Critchley]
20515 Maximise happiness by an area of strict privacy, and an area of utilitarian interventions [Mill, by Wolff,J]
20517 Utilitarianism values liberty, but guides us on which ones we should have or not have [Mill, by Wolff,J]
20516 Mill defends freedom as increasing happiness, but maybe it is an intrinsic good [Wolff,J on Mill]
7215 True freedom is pursuing our own good, while not impeding others [Mill]
7211 Prevention of harm to others is the only justification for exercising power over people [Mill]
7213 Liberty arises at the point where people can freely and equally discuss things [Mill]
7210 The will of the people is that of the largest or most active part of the people [Mill]
7214 Ethics rests on utility, which is the permanent progressive interests of people [Mill]
7212 Individuals have sovereignty over their own bodies and minds [Mill]
7216 The ethics of the Gospel has been supplemented by barbarous Old Testament values [Mill]
7217 The main argument for freedom is that interference with it is usually misguided [Mill]
7231 The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it [Mill]
7218 Individuals are not accountable for actions which only concern themselves [Mill]
7221 Blocking entry to an unsafe bridge does not infringe liberty, since no one wants unsafe bridges [Mill]
7223 Pimping and running a gambling-house are on the border between toleration and restraint [Mill]
7219 Society can punish actions which it believes to be prejudicial to others [Mill]
7226 Benefits performed by individuals, not by government, help also to educate them [Mill]
7224 We need individual opinions and conduct, and State education is a means to prevent that [Mill]
7225 It is a crime to create a being who lacks the ordinary chances of a desirable existence [Mill]
7227 It is evil to give a government any more power than is necessary [Mill]
7230 Aim for the maximum dissemination of power consistent with efficiency [Mill]
7229 People who transact their own business will also have the initiative to control their government [Mill]
7222 It is a crime for someone with a violent disposition to get drunk [Mill]
7228 Individuals often do things better than governments [Mill]
7220 Restraint for its own sake is an evil [Mill]
20508 How people vote should be on public record, so they can be held accountable [Mill, by Wolff,J]
20504 People can only participate in decisions in small communities, so representatives are needed [Mill]
20505 Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge [Mill]
20507 Voting is a strict duty, like jury service, and must only be aimed at the public good [Mill]
17086 Surprisingly, empiricists before Mill ignore explanation, which seems to transcend experience [Mill, by Ruben]
17091 Explanation is fitting of facts into ever more general patterns of regularity [Mill, by Ruben]
5201 Mill says logic and maths is induction based on a very large number of instances [Mill, by Ayer]
9360 If two black and two white objects in practice produced five, what colour is the fifth one? [Lewis,CI on Mill]
4944 Mill says names have denotation but not connotation [Mill, by Kripke]
7762 Proper names are just labels for persons or objects, and the meaning is the object [Mill, by Lycan]
8625 What physical facts could underlie 0 or 1, or very large numbers? [Frege on Mill]
12411 Mill is too imprecise, and is restricted to simple arithmetic [Kitcher on Mill]
5656 Empirical theories of arithmetic ignore zero, limit our maths, and need probability to get started [Frege on Mill]
8345 A cause is the total of all the conditions which inevitably produce the result [Mill]
10391 Causes and conditions are not distinct, because we select capriciously from among them [Mill]
17895 Combining two distinct assertions does not necessarily lead to a single 'complex proposition' [Mill]
11156 The essence is that without which a thing can neither be, nor be conceived to be [Mill]
9888 Mill mistakes particular applications as integral to arithmetic, instead of general patterns [Dummett on Mill]
9794 There are no such things as numbers in the abstract [Mill]
9796 Things possess the properties of numbers, as quantity, and as countable parts [Mill]
9795 Numbers have generalised application to entities (such as bodies or sounds) [Mill]
9798 Different parcels made from three pebbles produce different actual sensations [Mill]
9797 '2 pebbles and 1 pebble' and '3 pebbles' name the same aggregation, but different facts [Mill]
9799 3=2+1 presupposes collections of objects ('Threes'), which may be divided thus [Mill]
9801 Numbers must be assumed to have identical units, as horses are equalised in 'horse-power' [Mill]
9800 Arithmetic is based on definitions, and Sums of equals are equal, and Differences of equals are equal [Mill]
16845 The whole theory of induction rests on causes [Mill]
14547 The strict cause is the total positive and negative conditions which ensure the consequent [Mill]
14545 A cause is an antecedent which invariably and unconditionally leads to a phenomenon [Mill]
12190 Necessity is what will be, despite any alternative suppositions whatever [Mill]
16805 Causal inference is by spotting either Agreements or Differences [Mill, by Lipton]
16835 The Methods of Difference and of Agreement are forms of inference to the best explanation [Mill, by Lipton]
16843 Mill's methods (Difference,Agreement,Residues,Concomitance,Hypothesis) don't nail induction [Mill, by Lipton]
9806 Whatever is made up of parts is made up of parts of those parts [Mill]
9802 Numbers denote physical properties of physical phenomena [Mill]
9803 We can't easily distinguish 102 horses from 103, but we could arrange them to make it obvious [Mill]
9804 Arithmetical results give a mode of formation of a given number [Mill]
9805 12 is the cube of 1728 means pebbles can be aggregated a certain way [Mill]
9417 What are the fewest propositions from which all natural uniformities could be inferred? [Mill]
8377 Causation is just invariability of succession between every natural fact and a preceding fact [Mill]
16859 Most perception is one-tenth observation and nine-tenths inference [Mill]
16860 Inductive generalisation is more reliable than one of its instances; they can't all be wrong [Mill]
9080 General conceptions are a necessary preliminary to Induction [Mill]
9078 The study of the nature of Abstract Ideas does not belong to logic, but to a different science [Mill]
9079 We can focus our minds on what is common to a whole class, neglecting other aspects [Mill]
9081 We don't recognise comparisons by something in our minds; the concepts result from the comparisons [Mill]
9082 Clear concepts result from good observation, extensive experience, and accurate memory [Mill]
9624 Numbers are a very general property of objects [Mill, by Brown,JR]
4773 Mill's regularity theory of causation is based on an effect preceded by a conjunction of causes [Mill, by Psillos]
8741 Numbers must be of something; they don't exist as abstractions [Mill]
4775 In Mill's 'Method of Agreement' cause is the common factor in a range of different cases [Mill, by Psillos]
4776 In Mill's 'Method of Difference' the cause is what stops the effect when it is removed [Mill, by Psillos]
10427 All names are names of something, real or imaginary [Mill]
22623 Necessity can only mean what must be, without conditions of any kind [Mill]
8742 The only axioms needed are for equality, addition, and successive numbers [Mill, by Shapiro]
21335 Belief that an afterlife is required for justice is an admission that this life is very unjust [Mill]
21329 Nature dispenses cruelty with no concern for either mercy or justice [Mill]
21328 Killing is a human crime, but nature kills everyone, and often with great tortures [Mill]
21330 Nature makes childbirth a miserable experience, often leading to the death of the mother [Mill]
21331 Hurricanes, locusts, floods and blight can starve a million people to death [Mill]
21332 We don't get a love of 'order' from nature - which is thoroughly chaotic [Mill]
21333 Evil comes from good just as often as good comes from evil [Mill]
21334 No necessity ties an omnipotent Creator, so he evidently wills human misery [Mill]
6697 Moral rules protecting human welfare are more vital than local maxims [Mill]
7202 The English believe in the task of annihilating evil for the victory of good [Nietzsche on Mill]
3763 Ultimate goods such as pleasure can never be proved to be good [Mill]
3766 Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied [Mill]
5935 Mill's qualities of pleasure is an admission that there are other good states of mind than pleasure [Ross on Mill]
3764 Actions are right if they promote pleasure, wrong if they promote pain [Mill]
3767 Motive shows the worth of the agent, but not of the action [Mill]
3765 Only pleasure and freedom from pain are desirable as ends [Mill]
3769 With early training, any absurdity or evil may be given the power of conscience [Mill]
3768 Orthodox morality is the only one which feels obligatory [Mill]
3770 General happiness is only desirable because individuals desire their own happiness [Mill]
3771 Virtues only have value because they achieve some further end [Mill]
3772 The will, in the beginning, is entirely produced by desire [Mill]
3774 Rights are a matter of justice, not of benevolence [Mill]
3773 No individual has the right to receive our benevolence [Mill]
3776 Utilitarianism only works if everybody has a totally equal right to happiness [Mill]
3775 A right is a valid claim to society's protection [Mill]
3583 External objects are permanent possibilities of sensation [Mill]
3537 I judge others' feeling by analogy with my body and behaviour [Mill]