The origin and development of the moral ideasWestermarck, Edward
Philosophy
The origin and development of the moral ideas
Westermarck, Edward
Ethics; Ethics -- History; Prehistoric peoples
case it is deemed a duty to the master not to kill the slave. In the
latter case we can hardly say that the duty of not killing the slave
constitutes a right to live in the slave--it only constitutes a right
in the master to retain his slave alive, not to be deprived of him by
an act causing his death.
So commonly does the conception of a right belonging to a person
contain the idea of a duty which other persons owe him, that it seems
necessary to point out the existence of rights in which no such idea
is involved. A man's right to defend his country, for instance, does
not intrinsically imply that it is wrong of the enemy to disable him
from doing so. But, on the other hand, there are rights which are
nothing else than duties towards those who have the rights. A right is
not always a person's right to a certain activity, or to abstaining
from a certain activity; it may have exclusive reference to other
people's acts or omissions. That a man has the right to be rewarded by
his country only means that his country is under an obligation to
reward him. That a father has a right to be obeyed by his children
only means that it is a duty incumbent on his children to obey him.
That a person has the right of bodily integrity only means that it is
wrong to inflict on him a bodily injury. These rights may, no doubt,
if violated, give rise to certain rights of activity: a man may have a
right to claim the reward which is due to him, a father to exact from
his children the obedience which they owe him, a person who is wronged
to defend himself. But the rights of claiming a reward, of exacting
obedience, of resisting wrong, are certainly not identical with the
rights of being rewarded, of being obeyed, of not being
wronged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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