The Philosophical Theory of the StateBosanquet, Bernard
Philosophy
The Philosophical Theory of the State
Bosanquet, Bernard
Political science -- Philosophy; State, The -- Philosophy
_(c)_ It is commonly said that every right implies a duty. This has
two meanings, which should be distinguished.
In the one case, (i.) for “duty” should be read “obligation,” _i.e._
a demand enforceable by law. This simply means that every “position”
may be regarded as involving either powers secured or conditions
enforced, which are one and the same thing differently looked at.
Roughly speaking, they are the same thing as differently looked at
by one person, and by other persons. My right {209} to walk along
the high road involves an obligation upon all other persons not to
obstruct me, and in the last resort the State will send horse, foot
and artillery rather than let me be causelessly obstructed in walking
along the high road.
It is also true that every position which can be the source of
obligations enforceable in favour of my rights is likewise a link
with obligations enforceable on me in favour of the rights of others.
By claiming a right in virtue of my position I recognise and testify
to the general system of law according to which I am reciprocally
under obligation to respect the rights, or rather the function
and position, of others. My rights then imply obligations both in
others, and perhaps in myself, correlative to these rights, and
in me correlative to the rights of others. But it cannot strictly
be said that the obligations are the source of the rights, or the
rights of the obligations. Both are the varied external conditions of
“positions” as regarded from different points of view.
But (ii.) there is a different sense in which every right implies a
duty. And this, the true meaning of the phrase, is involved in what
we have said of the nature of a “position.” All rights, as claims
which both are and ought to be enforceable by law, derive their
imperative authority from their relation to an end which enters into
the better life. All rights, then, are powers instrumental to making
the best of human capacities, and can only be recognised or exercised
upon this ground.
In this sense, the duty is the purpose with a view to which the
right is secured, and not merely {210} a corresponding obligation
equally derived from a common ground; and the right and duty are not
distinguished as something claimed by self and something owed to
others, but the duty as an imperative purpose, and the right as a
power secured because instrumental to it.
_(d)_ We have treated rights throughout as claims, the enforcement
of which by the State is merely the climax of their recognition by
society. Why do we thus demand recognition for rights? If we deny
that there can be unrecognised rights, do we not surrender human
freedom to despotism or to popular caprice?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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