Publication: Rights and Interests
Date
2009
Authors
Published Version
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Oxford University Press
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Citation
Scanlon, Thomas. 2009. Rights and interests. In Arguments for a better world: Essays in honor of Amartya Sen. Vol. 1, Ethics, welfare, and measurement, ed. Kaushik Basu and Ravi Kanbur, 68-79. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Research Data
Abstract
Rights are defined by certain specific duties, and they are justified on the ground that they are necessary to protect important individual interests. The paper examines the relation between a right and the duties that define it, and the relation between a right and the interests that justify it. The latter form of justification is not "instrumental," in a way that contrasts with the justification of other moral claims. The idea that rights conflict and must be “balanced” against each other is a mistake. Interests can conflict and must be balanced; rights must be defined so that they do not conflict.
Description
Keywords
deontology, consequentialism, balancing, interests, rights
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