I.

Rights and Duties of Man

Rights and Duties: Rights and Duties of Man !

Ethics is the science of morality of conduct. It deals with Tightness and wrongness of
actions. It deals with moral good and evil. It deals with merit and demerit of moral agents
doing right and wrong actions. It deals with rights, duties and virtues of persons in society. It
deals with freedom and responsibility of persons.
It deals with these fundamental moral concepts involved in moral consciousness. The
notions of right and good are the most fundamental of all moral concepts.

Right and Wrong:

Right and wrong apply to voluntary actions and habitual actions which are results
of repeated voluntary actions. The term right comes from the Latin word rectus. It means
straight or according to rule. When an action conforms to a moral rule or law of conduct,
it is said to be right. The term wrong is connected with the verb wrong. A wrong action
implies a twist of a rule of conduct. It violates a law of conduct.
Right and wrong are inconceivable apart from the concept of good. Every law or
rule presupposes the end which is realized by it. The end which is realized by a law is called
the good. The notions of right and wrong are connected with the moral laws which are
subservient to the Highest Good.

Right and Good:

The right is a means to the realization of the good. An action is right if it tends to bring
about what is good. An action is wrong if it tends to bring about what is evil. The conception
of right is subordinate to the conception of good. The right is subservient to the good. The
good is an end which a person ought to realize in order to realize his deeper self. It is an end
which satisfies his rational nature.
It fulfills the demands of his sentient nature in conformity with the higher law of reason.
It satisfies his total self-sentient as well as rational. The concept of right is derived from that of
a moral law or law of duty. A moral law is not a law of nature. It is not a statement of what
always happens. A moral law is that which ought to be. The right is the fundamental
category of ethics. The notions of right and good are fundamental in morality.

The Good and the Highest Good:

What fulfills a need or satisfies a desire is good. Health, wealth, knowledge, culture,
etc, are good. Certain things satisfy our biological needs. They are bodily goods. Certain
things satisfy our economic needs. They are economic goods.
Certain things satisfy our social needs. They are social goods. Certain things satisfy our
intellectual, moral and aesthetic needs. They are Truth, Good and Beauty. There is a
hierarchy of goods at the top of which there is the highest good. It is good in itself. It is not a
means to any other higher good. The highest good is the absolute good. The subordinate
goods are instrumental or relative goods.

Rights and Duties:

Rights are moral claims of individuals recognized by society. Duties are moral debts or
obligations of individuals recognized by society. B. Bosanquet says, Rights are claims
recognized by society acting as ultimate authority, to the maintenance of conditions
favourable to the best life.
Rights reside in some individuals; they have rights to certain things which are necessary
for their self-realization. Duties are moral obligations, on the part of other individuals, to
respect those rights. The individuals also having certain rights are under moral obligation to
use them well for the common good. Rights and duties are ultimately based upon the same
moral laws and relations. The society grants certain rights to its individual members for their
own good and the good of the society. A man has no right to anything by himself. The
society concedes certain rights to him, which are conducive to the social good.
A person cannot claim anything for himself alone apart from the society. Moral rights
of individuals are protected by social conscience or public opinion. They are not necessarily
enforced by the State like legal rights. Moral rights are conceded to individuals by the
society for their self- realization. They are indispensable for the realization of the highest
personal good and common good.
Rights and duties are correlative to each other. Duties are moral obligations. Every
right brings an obligation with it. When one man has a right, other men are under moral
obligation to respect it, and he himself is under moral obligation to use it for the common
good.
Moral obligation is different from legal obligation. The former cannot be enforced by
the State, while the latter can. Moral obligation depends upon the approval of public
opinion. Take, for instance, the right of property. An individual has been granted this right for
the common good. So not only other persons are under moral obligation to respect his right,
but he himself is under moral obligation to use it for the common good.
Thus rights and duties are correlative to each other. We have a right to the means that
are necessary for our self-realization and for the highest good of the society of which we are
members. We are under moral obligation to use them in the best way for the highest good of
the society.
Rights and duties are correlative to each other, because they are reciprocal relations
between individuals in a changing society. A society changes in different times under
different conditions. So rights and duties also change. New occasions create new rights and
duties.

The society is the ultimate authority which concedes moral rights to individuals,
imposes duties or moral obligations on others to respect these rights, and enforces the
observance of these duties. Thus rights and duties always have a reference to the society.
They are maintained by the same moral laws and relations in society.
They are conducive to the fulfillment of mans vocation as a moral being. They are
favourable to the realization of the rational self of each member of the society. They are
favourable to the realization of a rational universe in which each person will have realized a
perfect character.
Rights and duties are meaningless apart from the society. There are no rights
antecedents to the society. Green says, No one can have a right except (1) as a member
of a society, and (2) of a society in which some common good is recognized by the
members of the society as their own ideal good as that which should be for each of them.
Rights are conceded to individuals by the society on some conditions. The individuals must
be capable of exercising the rights properly, and enjoying them without hindrance. They are
given certain rights only when they acquire fitness for receiving them. Thus the rights are
never unconditional.

The Rights of Man

1. Right to Live:
The first right of man is the right to live. Self-realization is the highest good, which requires
the continuance of life for its realization. The right to live is the primary right. The sacredness of
the life should be recognized.
But even his fundamental right was slowly recognized in the history of humanity. In earlier
times, in some countries children were frequently exposed, widows were burnt, heretics were
killed, captives in war were put to death. Even now duelling is permitted, and slaughter of
men, on a huge scale, in the form of war is not condemned.
The right of life brings a moral obligation to treat our own life and that of others as a
sacred thing. We should not hinder or destroy our own life. We should not take the life of any
other person. We should further our own life and that of others. He who takes the life of
another may legitimately be deprived of his own life. But capital punishment is condemned
at present.

2. Right of Education:
The next right is the right of education. Here right and obligation are closely connected
with each other. Every person has a right to have the best education he is capable of
receiving. He is under moral obligation to receive the best education according to his
capacity.
In a well-developed society, every person ought to be given the maximum opportunity to
unfold his potentialities to the best advantage and contribute his share to the general good.
Education develops the intellect, sharpens the understanding, and widens the intellectual
horizon. It is absolutely necessary for self-expression and self-development.

3. Right to Work:
The right to work or employment follows from the right to live. If a person does not get
employment, he cannot earn his livelihood. A modern welfare State should ensure the full
employment of every citizen, because unemployment or under-employment deprives him of
the opportunity for self-realization. Right to employment should be recognized by every
welfare State.

4. Right of Freedom:
The next right is that of freedom. Self-realization is the highest good. It is realized by a
persons will. So he should be free to exercise his will in order to realize his supreme end. He
should not be coerced by anybody. He should not be a slave to anybody. Freedom means
restricted freedom. Absolute and unrestricted freedom amounts to licence.
In a well ordered community, an individual should be allowed to realize his supreme end
by the free exercise of his will in so far as it is consistent with the maintenance of the social
order. Absolute freedom means anarchy and chaos. Freedom is granted in a well-ordered
state. The right of freedom brings with it the obligation of using ones freedom for the general
good.

5. Right of Property:
The right of property necessarily follows from the right of freedom. Self-realization is the
highest good. It can be realized by a person if he is allowed to live, work, and freely exercise
his will. Freedom of the will can be effectively exercised by an individual, if he is allowed to
use some property earned by him freely.
Personality and property go together. The sense of personality cannot be developed
without the sense of property owned by a person. Hence personality can be realized only
through the free use of some property.
The State is the custodian of the personal rights and the real rights of the individual.
Real rights are rights of property. Property is the expression of personality. Rights of property
are essentially personal. That is Hegels view.
A person has a right to the means which he can freely use for the development of his
personality. He cannot develop his personality without some property. The right of property
was conceded to an individual much later in the evolution of society, when he became
conscious of the dignity of his personality and asserted his right over against the family or the
tribe in which he had formerly been merged.
The right of property should be granted by the society to its individual members on the
basis of equity and justice for the highest good of the individuals and the society. The right of
property brings a moral obligation to use it wisely for the good of the society.

6. Right of Contract:
The right to enter into a contract and fulfill it is another important right. The right of
property gives rise to the right of contract. A person has control over his property; his free will
has created it; it is a part of himself. Hence it follows that he can possess it, use or exchange
it as he thinks it proper. Thus the right of contract necessarily arises out of the right of
property.
If one man enters into a contract with another to render certain services to him, the latter
has the right to receive these services. The right was not recognized in primitive societies in
which the individual had no right of his own.
The right of contract brings the moral obligation to enter into a fair contract. A person
cannot enter into a contract with another to become his slave. Only a highly developed
society can guarantee fairness of contract.

Ethics
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

What is Ethics?

Ethics is the branch of study dealing with what is the proper course of action for man. It
answers the question, "What do I do?" It is the study of right and wrong in human endeavors.
At a more fundamental level, it is the method by which we categorize our values and pursue
them. Do we pursue our own happiness, or do we sacrifice ourselves to a greater cause? Is
that foundation of ethics based on the Bible, or on the very nature of man himself, or
neither?
Why is Ethics important?

Ethics is a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action.
Without it, our actions would be random and aimless. There would be no way to work
towards a goal because there would be no way to pick between a limitless number of goals.
Even with an ethical standard, we may be unable to pursue our goals with the possibility of
success. To the degree which a rational ethical standard is taken, we are able to correctly
organize our goals and actions to accomplish our most important values. Any flaw in our
ethics will reduce our ability to be successful in our endeavors.
What are the key elements of a proper Ethics?

A proper foundation of ethics requires a standard of value to which all goals and
actions can be compared to. This standard is our own lives, and the happiness which makes
them livable. This is our ultimate standard of value, the goal in which an ethical man must
always aim. It is arrived at by an examination of man's nature, and recognizing his peculiar
needs. A system of ethics must further consist of not only emergency situations, but the day
to day choices we make constantly. It must include our relations to others, and recognize
their importance not only to our physical survival, but to our well-being and happiness. It
must recognize that our lives are an end in themselves, and that sacrifice is not only not
necessary, but destructive.