Contemporary Moral Problems

Book Review Chapter 1: Ethical Theories:

Joel Feinberg: The Nature and Value of Rights

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Moral-Problems-James-White/dp/0534584306/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233793391&sr=8-1

Quote:  “deserving something good is different from the right of having something good”

    I agree with Feinberg regarding this. I think it is really true that deserving something good is totally different when you have the right to have something good. Having the right to deserve something good is a right where in you must have it. It is your right to have something good and no matter what comes in your way, it is your right. No one can take it from you unlike when deserving something good, which you do not have the right to claim it. Yes, you deserve it, but you don’t have the right to totally deserve it.

Learning Expectation:

    In this chapter, the author, Joel Feinberg will be discussing about the nature of rights and it’s values. Sometimes, we tend to disregard the value of rights and not value it the way it is supposed to be valued and fought for. Moreover, Feinberg will be discussing the nature of rights. This will be interesting, as we will get a philosophers’ point of view rather than a non-philosopher. This way, we would be able to get philosophical insights and discussions.

Review:

    To give you a brief background of this chapter’s philosopher, Joel Feinberg is a professor of philosophy at the University of Arizona. Like many philosophers, he also wrote books, which are Doing and Deserving, Social Philosophy, The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, and many more.

    Joel Feinberg wants to demonstrate that rights are morally important because there are people who actually don’t realize for a fact that it is morally important. To be able to point out his point, he used a technique where in he imaginably created this place that he called Nowheresville. Feinberg discusses Nowheresville as a world where in people have no rights and are not treated equally. Nowheresville is different from ours because we have rights and we have equality.

    In this chapter, Feinberg also discusses to us the doctrine of the logical correlativity rights and duties. He states that all duties entail other people’s rights and all rights entail other people’s duties. The doctrine is alleged entailment from duties to rights. Feinberg states that “In a sense yes and in a sense no.” Moreover, Feinberg discusses about the concept of personal desert. Feinberg explains that the concept is when a person deserves something good, he deserves it. Although Feinberg stated that deserving something goof is different from the right of having something good. And I agree with Feinberg.

What I’ve learned:

    I have learned that deserving something goof is different from the right of having something good. This is a very interesting statement by Feinberg himself because it has a lot of truth in it and it is a powerful line.

Questions:

1.    Do people actually realize the right of deserving something good that just deserving it?

2.    How many people actually know about this?

3.    Do people believe in this or do they reject it?

4.    Why are other people so sensitive about their rights while others don’t care?

5.    What’s the nature of people with rights?

Citation: (James E. White, St. Cloud State University, 2003)