[lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end

Phil Enns wrote:
> Inalienable rights
> arise from who we are as persons, not from circumstances.

I have no idea how RP will answer you, but I disagree.  Inalienable rights 
arise from the community saying these rights are inalienable rights.  Every 
thing arises from out of the community (except those communities under the 
gun -- which all are to some degree).  There's no absolute inalienable 
right.  There are rights arising from logical consistency with principles 
taken as basic to a given culture because that culture holds those 
principles as basic.

Mike Geary
waxing philosophical in Memphis
where wax is more than a museum,
it's what bees do.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 1:16 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end


> Robert Paul suggests that one can have an inalienable right to something 
> but
> have no need for it.  I can make no sense of this.  Take for instance the
> right to life as protection from violence.  This right does not depend on
> whether at any particular moment I need the police because the right
> pertains to my personhood as opposed to any contingency.  Inalienable 
> rights
> arise from who we are as persons, not from circumstances.  It may be that
> government grants rights, such as to healthcare and education, rights 
> which
> people like Melinda Gates have no need for, but these are not inalienable
> rights and would be better off not being referred to as rights.  If one
> doesn't need a right, it can't be an inalienable right.
>
>
> Robert: "One could reasonably say that I have a right to free speech even
> though as a matter of fact nothing I say offends anybody or goes counter 
> to
> anyone else’s beliefs."
>
> However, the right to free speech, which isn't an inalienable right, does
> not depend on the content of one's speech.  Rather, it is a right that
> arises out of a particular politics which can only function when people 
> are
> largely free to say what they like, even when what they say is banal or
> inane.  While the right to free speech is not an inalienable right, it has
> the form of one in that it is a right one has even if one doesn't bother
> speaking out.
>
>
> Robert: "I’m not even saying that everyone does have a right to an
> education, although I would like to bring it about that something like 
> that
> were true."
>
> But this is precisely the state of affairs that cannot be true of an
> inalienable right.  One has these rights regardless of what government is 
> in
> place or the state of that government.  Inalienable rights derive from
> personhood, not contingent circumstances.  Inalienable rights do not 
> depend
> on whether one wants to exercise them or not because they are not 
> dependent
> on one's volition or desire.  We do not ask whether potential victims want
> to be harmed before stopping a potential murderer.
>
>
> Robert: "I’m not talking about how it is or ought to be in other times and
> places but about rights in the US only."
>
> Fine.  But if these rights are to be derived from the notion of an
> inalienable right, then the issue is necessarily a universal one.
>
>
> Robert: "I doubt [the conditions under which the government satisfies its
> duty to the right of maintenance of life]can be decided by sitting in a 
> room
> with the shades drawn."
>
> And what do you suppose the Supremes are doing when they decide?  Of 
> course
> 'sitting in a room with the shades drawn' is an important part of working
> these issues out, though not all that is needed.
>
>
> Robert: "That a right is universal, absolute, or inalienable doesn’t mean
> that it applies only to goods and conditions that cannot be described, 
> lest
> the right suddenly become itself contingent."
>
> Of course not.  What makes it contingent is its application.  How does one
> determine that a right bears on a situation without reference to goods?
>
>
> As always, thanks to Robert for his responses.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Phil Enns
> Toronto, ON
>
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