USyd Philosophy Postgraduate Work-in-Progress Seminar Matthew Hammerton: 'Are rights discourse and deontic discourse equivalent?'
Monday, September 5, 3:30-5:00pm, Main Quad, Room S227 (University of Sydney) ABSTRACT: In this talk I examine the relationship between rights discourse and deontic discourse. Under the widely accepted Hohfeldian analysis of rights, any claim about a right is equivalent to a claim about certain duties. My strategy is to accept this analysis but point out that it doesn’t yet settle the question of equivalence. It doesn’t settle this question because the Hohfeldian analysis only connects rights with directed duties (duties that are directed at, or owed to, someone). If there are undirected duties (duties that hold without being directed at someone) then there are claims about duties that cannot be translated into rights discourse and hence the equivalence thesis is false. Thus, the truth status of the equivalence thesis crucially depends on whether undirected duties exist. I argue that different moral theories give different answers to this question and hence, whether you should accept the equivalence thesis will depend on what moral commitments you hold. Everyone is welcome to attend. If you would like to present or require further information, please contact Nick Malpas at [email protected]. The format is 30 minutes for presentations followed by 1 hour of discussion. Since the primary aim of this seminar is to generate discussion, presentations need not be particularly polished or formal.
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