Rights are moral principles defining a man's freedom of action
in society
What are rights?
"Rights are moral principles sanctioning a man's freedom of action in a social
context."1
To live rationally by one's reason in society, man needs only
one thing from his fellow men: freedom of action.
He requires rights to those actions necessary to support his own life, the most
fundamental right being the right to life, from which all other rights, including the
right to liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness derive.
What do you mean by "freedom of action"?
Freedom of action does not mean freedom to act by permission,
which may be revoked at any dictatorial tyrant's, or democratic mob's whim, but freedom to
act as an absolute -- by right.
How are they moral principles?
Rights are not merely political principles, but they are principles that form the bridge between individual morality (ethics) and the moral
principles governing society (politics). Rights say that morally certain actions are
right, and all other actions that forcibly interfere with those actions are wrong.
How are rights violated?
Rights may be violated in only one way -- by the initiation of physical
force.
Are rights inalienable?
Rights are inalienable -- within a man's sphere of action they are absolute.2
By inalienable, I mean that they may not be alienated from the person who possesses them,
i.e., they may not be given or taken away, i.e., they may not be morally infringed upon.
For example, a man may violate your right to your property by taking it away from you, but
your right to that property has not been alienated, i.e., you are in the right and the
robber is in the wrong.
What is the fundamental right?
There is only one fundamental right -- the right to life -- from which all other rights,
including the right to liberty, the right to property and the right to pursue one's own happiness derive.
Are these other rights competing and contradictory with the right to life?
No, as these rights are corollaries of the right to life, they do not contradict the right
to life, or each other, but form a single integrated whole. All other rights are simply
the right to life applied to different contexts.
Are rights guarantees to the success of actions?
All rights are rights to freedom of action. That is, the right to those actions necessary
to support ones life -- so long as they do not violate the rights of others. Keep in mind
that rights are not guarantees that those actions will always be successful. Thus, the
right to pursue happiness, does not necessarily mean achievement -- it only means one is
free to pursue what one thinks will make one happy.
Pursuit does not mean attainment, though it is a necessary precondition to attaining it.
Similarly the right to life, is the right to take those actions necessary to survive, free
from the physical compulsion and interference of other men. The right to life does not
mean that one can force others to support ones life against their will. [what rights do
guarantee is that if your actions are successful, no one may rob your of the results of
those actions].
How does one delimit one's rights from that of another?
Observe the principle in delineating ones right from the right's of another: no right
(properly defined) violates the rights of another. If it does, it is not a right. Or, any
action that involves the initiation of force, cannot be a right
action: it is always wrong.
References:
1 Ayn Rand, Man's Rights in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
2 See Leonard Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn
Rand, for an excellent
presentation of the nature of 'contextual absolutes'.
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