Homo Sapiens and Rights

I'm a member of the animal kingdom, chordate phylum, vertebrate subphylum, mammal class, primate order, hominid family, genus homo, species sapiens. I am a living thing with a brain that is capable of pattern recognition, abstraction, reasoning, hypothesizing and speech. On this planet, at least, my species is the only one wherein these facilities are so highly developed.

I have a Randian view of our condition. Compared to other closely related species, we are physically weaker, our senses are duller, and our children take longer to mature. Our brains are what let us survive. We have the ability to act that is based more on the results of our thoughts, and less on instinct than do other life forms. We are independent from each other, but we interact, mostly by cooperation. Our survival as humans requires us to use our brains-- they are the only things that make us significantly different from other species. As individuals, we must be free to do what our brains tell us. But as we interact with each other, our freedom must be limited: we must not compel, coerce or deceive others, just as we would not want to be compelled, coerced or deceived by them. These considerations are the basis for our morals, which define the proper course of behavior. This leads to the concept of rights, which define our freedoms as thinking individuals, and our limits when dealing with others. The fundamental right is the right to life-- to be able to use our brains to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated action. Without that ability, we would not be humans. If we are all equal, it follows that as individuals we must not act so as to deprive others of these same rights. In a social context, rights are negative, in the sense that they impose limits on what we can do. A right that would be positive would require others to do things for us. Since that would interfere with their rights to be left alone, the idea of a positive right is invalid.

I can't express myself as eloquently as some on these matters, but I hope that my concept of rights is clear enough. It will guide almost everything that I write about on this blog.

CrackerBarrel.