PHIL20401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Noble Eightfold Path, Mad Scientist, Conjoined Twins
Document Summary
In order to have a right you have to be able to claim the right and have a desire that people treat you with that right. Babies don"t have desires so they don"t have a right to life. You don"t have a right to life if you give up your life. The right to life is the right to decide how your life goes. Right to something should be ability to choose actions without being obstructed by outside influences. Argument from tooley: to have a right to x, you must desire x. if you desire x then no one should interfere with it unless they have good reason. They should have desires with respect to x. i can have a right to vote even if i don"t desire to vote. Tooley would say yes you have the right but that"s not relevant until you form a desire about it.
