Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community - Loren Lomasky.pdf

This account of basic moral rights concerns whether they are necessary, to what kind of being they can be ascribed, their nature, and to whom they extend. Lomansky contends that rights are a kind of shorthand category for well-entrenched moral intuitions, principles, and standards whose aim is to support individualism as of paramount moral significance. The category is useful, he thinks, even though we lack a fully adequate theory generating these rights. They derive from a person's identity as a purposive agent, but must be sensitive also to ends that are not his exclusively. Intended primarily for professional philosophers, the book includes interesting discussions of welfare liberalism and of the (alleged) rights of children, fetuses, animals, etc.

Robert Hoffman, Philosophy Department, York College, CUNY


Review

"Clear, careful, and well structured, with occasional wit and even passion. Lomasky's arguments are original and important. His book is the only convincing defense, that I know of, of the moderate libertarianism which so often lies undefended and even unexpressed behind contemporary philosophical arguements in applied ethics, political, and legal philosophy. The book promises to inspire other fruitful efforts to advance beyond the shaky starting point of most traditional rights theories."--John Simmons, University of Virginia

"A tough-minded, intricately worked out philosophical argument, in many respects superior to Nozick's well-known libertarian defense. Highly recommended for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses."--Religious Studies Review

"An important event in the philosophical development of classical liberal theory....Readable, entertaining, and far too full of moral truths to be confined to the artificial world of the academic."--Reason

"An important work. Even those disagreeing with its central thesis will find it challenging."--American Political Science Review

"Imaginative and elegantly presented."--The Philosophical Review