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Single Idea 8050

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 3. Natural Values / c. Natural rights ]

Full Idea

There are no natural or human rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and in unicorns.

Gist of Idea

There are no natural or human rights, and belief in them is nonsense

Source

Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory [1981], Ch. 6)

Book Ref

MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory' [Duckworth 1982], p.67

A Reaction

His point is that the notion of 'rights' only arises out of a community. However, while you might criticise an individual for absurdly asserting all sorts of dubious rights, no one could criticise them if they asserted the right to defend their own life.

The 40 ideas from Alasdair MacIntyre

7097 Virtue is secondary to a role-figure, defined within a culture [MacIntyre, by Statman]
8034 We still have the appearance and language of morality, but we no longer understand it [MacIntyre]
8036 Unlike expressions of personal preference, evaluative expressions do not depend on context [MacIntyre]
8035 In trying to explain the type of approval involved, emotivists are either silent, or viciously circular [MacIntyre]
8037 The expression of feeling in a sentence is in its use, not in its meaning [MacIntyre]
8040 Emotivism cannot explain the logical terms in moral discourse ('therefore', 'if..then') [MacIntyre]
8042 Nowadays most people are emotivists, and it is embodied in our culture [MacIntyre]
8038 Since Moore thinks the right action produces the most good, he is a utilitarian [MacIntyre]
8043 Characters are the masks worn by moral philosophies [MacIntyre]
8045 The failure of Enlightenment attempts to justify morality will explain our own culture [MacIntyre]
8047 Philosophy has been marginalised by its failure in the Enlightenment to replace religion [MacIntyre]
8049 Moral judgements now are anachronisms from a theistic age [MacIntyre]
8048 When 'man' is thought of individually, apart from all roles, it ceases to be a functional concept [MacIntyre]
8050 There are no natural or human rights, and belief in them is nonsense [MacIntyre]
8051 Mention of 'intuition' in morality means something has gone wrong with the argument [MacIntyre]
8052 To find empiricism and science in the same culture is surprising, as they are really incompatible [MacIntyre]
8053 Twentieth century social life is re-enacting eighteenth century philosophy [MacIntyre]
8057 Unpredictability doesn't entail inexplicability, and predictability doesn't entail explicability [MacIntyre]
8054 Social sciences discover no law-like generalisations, and tend to ignore counterexamples [MacIntyre]
8056 AI can't predict innovation, or consequences, or external relations, or external events [MacIntyre]
8055 If God is omniscient, he confronts no as yet unmade decisions, so decisions are impossible [MacIntyre]
8058 Maybe we can only understand rules if we first understand the virtues [MacIntyre]
8059 The good life for man is the life spent seeking the good life for man [MacIntyre]
8060 In the 17th-18th centuries morality offered a cure for egoism, through altruism [MacIntyre]
8061 If morality just is emotion, there are no external criteria for judging emotions [MacIntyre]
8062 Proof is a barren idea in philosophy, and the best philosophy never involves proof [MacIntyre]
21050 I can only make decisions if I see myself as part of a story [MacIntyre]
8001 'Dikaiosune' is justice, but also fairness and personal integrity [MacIntyre]
8002 Sophists don't distinguish a person outside one social order from someone outside all order [MacIntyre]
8005 'Happiness' is a bad translation of 'eudaimonia', which includes both behaving and faring well [MacIntyre]
8006 When Aristotle speaks of soul he means something like personality [MacIntyre]
8008 The Bible is a story about God in which humans are incidental characters [MacIntyre]
8013 In the Reformation, morality became unconditional but irrational, individually autonomous, and secular [MacIntyre]
8012 The value/fact logical gulf is misleading, because social facts involve values [MacIntyre]
8022 I am naturally free if I am not tied to anyone by a contract [MacIntyre]
8021 The Levellers and the Diggers mark a turning point in the history of morality [MacIntyre]
8023 My duties depend on my identity, which depends on my social relations [MacIntyre]
8031 Fans of natural rights or laws can't agree on what the actual rights or laws are [MacIntyre]
23080 Liberals debate how conservative or radical to be, but don't question their basics [MacIntyre]
10356 Relativism can be seen as about the rationality of different cultural traditions [MacIntyre, by Kusch]