Thursday, February 12, 2009

General and special rights

For the most part I felt as though I comprehended and could see the logic behind Hart's conception of a right on an individual basis. I understood that at the core, Hart was arguing that one has a right to something if by one's choice one determines how another will act, thus limiting their freedom of choice.

The notion that rights depend of the relationship between individuals as formed by the exercise of their free will makes sense to me. Where Hart lost me a bit was when he was talking about general rights, which didn't seem to follow the logic used for the rest of the article. Since Hart says that "general rights do not arise out of any special relationship or transaction between men," (88) how does he argue to convince us of their existence at all?

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