Rex Kerr
Jul 31, 2023

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Yes, I understood that, but I disagree that it's the wrong word. It's just one of the meanings of the word "rights".

If people start getting confused, then yes, we want to use terms more carefully in order to disambiguate. We can talk about individual rights, legal or moral, positive or negative, and so on (or, as I prefer, to re-frame the question in terms of our responsibilities to one another as individuals--there is still usually a lot of confusion around even individual negative moral rights because they implicitly impose positive obligations on individuals and institutions; when talking about responsibilities the implicit becomes explicit). And we can talk about institutional power, responsibility, authority, and so on.

But they're all rights, because the word has multiple meanings.

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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