Rights and Duties

The concept of rights plays a crucial role in many of the moral arguments and moral claims invoked in business discussions. E.g: Right to equal pay for equal work, right to know, right to manage etc. Right is an individuals entitlement to something. E.g. Legal rights and moral rights.

1. Three important features:

1. Moral Rights are tightly correlated to duties One persons moral rights can be defined in terms of the moral duties other people have toward that person. E.g: If right to education is your moral right, it becomes my moral duty to teach and enable you. And if right to teach is my moral right, it becomes your moral duty to be attentive and interactive during classes. 2. Provide individuals with autonomy and equality in the free pursuit of their interests. As per moral rights no one can force you to pursue something except for special and exceptionally weighty reasons. 3. Provides the basis for justifying ones actions and for invoking the protection or aid of others.

2. Negative and Positive Rights

Negative: Duties others have to not interfere in certain activities of the person who holds the rights. For example, if I have the right to teach, this means that every other person, including my employer, has the duty not to interfere in my teaching affairs. Now do you understand why I bark at the class to be silent? Positive: Duties of other agents to provide the holder of the right with whatever he or she needs to freely pursue his or her interests. For example, if you have the right to adequate education, then it not only means that no one else should interfere in your learning but you should also be provided with quality education(becomes my duty). Wonder-Ponder: Which right should be given higher priority? Negative or Positive? Think of the lines of conservative vs. liberal views.

3. Contractual Rights and Duties

These are limited rights and correlated duties that arise when one person enters an agreement with another person. 1. Associated only to specific individuals. 2. Arise out of specific transaction between particular individuals. 3. Depend on a publicly accepted system of rules that define the transactions that give rise to those rights and duties. Wonder-Ponder: Can modern business societies operate without contractual rights and duties? Ethical rules governing the contracts are

1. Both parties should have full knowledge of the nature of the agreement they are entering 2. Neither party should intentionally misrepresent the facts of the contractual situation to the other party. 3. Neither party should be forced to enter the contract under pressure or threat. 4. The contract should not bind the parties to an immoral act.

A Basis of Moral Rights: Kant

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) attempts to show that there are certain moral rights and duties that all human beings possess regardless of any utilitarian benefits. Kants theory is based on a moral principle that he called the categorical imperative(CI) and that requires that everyone should be treated as a free person equal to everyone else.

1. First formulation of CI
An action is morally right for a person in a certain situation if, and only if, the persons reason for carrying out the action is a reason that he or she would be willing to have every person act on, in any similar situation. Two criteria for determining moral right and wrong: Universalizability: The persons reasons for acting must be reasons that everyone could act on at least in principle Reversibility: A persons reasons for acting must be reversible. One must be willing to have all others use those reasons even against oneself. Note: Unlike utilitarian principles, Kants categorical imperative focuses on a persons interior motivations and not on the consequences of external actions.

2. Second formulation of CI
An action is morally right for a person if and only if in performing the action, the person does not use others merely as a means for advancing his or her own interests, but also both respects and develops their capacity to choose freely for themselves. The principle states that people should not be treated as objects incapable of free choices and should not be used as tools or machines that can be manipulated, deceived or unwillingly exploited.

3. Criticism:
1. CIs are unclear 2. Rights can conflict 3. Rights can go wrong