An Introduction to Rights

by Edmundson, William A.

• ISBN13: 9781107010987
• ISBN10: 1107010985
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-23
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

An Introduction to Rights is a readable and accessible introduction to the history, logic, moral implications, and political tendencies of the idea of rights. It is organized chronologically and discusses important historical events such as the French and American Revolutions. It treats a range of historical figures, including Grotius, Paley, Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, Burke, Godwin, Douglass, Mill, and Hohfeld, and relates the concept of rights to contemporary debates such as consequentialism versus contractualism. This thoroughly updated second edition includes a new preface and expands the discussion of the surprising role that slavery has played in the history of rights. It includes new material on egalitarianism, distributive justice, and what the demand for equal rights means.

Table of Contents

The First Expansionary Era

The prehistory of rights

The rights of man: the enlightenment

Mischievous nonsense?

The nineteenth century: consolidation and retrenchment

The conceptual neighborhood of rights: Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld

The Second Expansionary Era

The universal declaration, and a revolt against utilitarianism

The nature of rights: 'choice' theory and 'interest' theory

A right to do wrong? Two conceptions of moral rights

The pressure of consequentialism

What is interference?

The future of rights

Conclusion

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