09/12/2007

Musings on the concept of human rights

Yeah; so the other day I was thinking about the whole concept of human rights, and how they come about. The following is just a collection of my ideas; they have no real purpose but are merely a way for me to extrapolate my thoughts on the matter. They will probably be rather winding and go off on many tangents. Huzzah.

The person has no rights by default.

Rights are bestowed by society based on the generally agreed ethics of that society.

Therefore, the person in isolation can be said to have no rights as the individual cannot form a society

Society is the interaction between many individuals

Thus it can be seen that rights are a direct result of interaction between individuals.

Why, then, are so many rights given or denied without interaction with the individuals they affect?

Answer- government.


Why should we have rights?

They set a standard for living. In a Utopian society, rights would be equal for all

Is there such a thing as a basic right?

Some rights are more vital than others.

For society to work, a certain level of conformity is required.

Rights, therefore, need conformity.

Conformity is not necessarily bad.

It is necessary for any social group to work as a cohesive whole.

At what level of conformity is personal freedom lost?

1. Conformity of the personal- the act of conforming to social trends
2. Conformity of the self/intellect- the act of conforming to certain ways of thinking
3. Conformity of motions- the act of conforming to accepted behaviour

Society needs 3., and to a small degree 2.

1. Is unnecessary and seems to arise spontaneously as part of the human mindset- helps ease interaction with others, but is ultimately superficial.

2. Is needed for general decisions to be made in a form of government, but in totality is stifling. For intellectual exploration and advancement, this must be disregarded.

3. Is wholly necessary. This does not refer to individual, low level actions, but rather to what is and what is not allowed by society. We all conform to the social idea that murder is not an accepted form of behaviour, and it is in our and societies interests to conform to this.




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