'The Nature of Rights' by Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand at Columbia University -- part 11: The Nature of Rights

In this radio interview, Ayn Rand explains her theory of rights as a social application of morality, designed to ensure “those conditions of existence which are required by man’s nature for his proper survival.” The individual’s rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness, she argues protect his ability to act on his own rational judgment, to choose his own values, and to keep the material product of his efforts. Rand addresses and rejects theories that rights are gifts from a supernatural power or from society. She also discusses the contradiction involved in asserting welfare rights to goods and services.

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[BuyTheDip]

A right is a moral concept that defines and sanctions a man's freedom of action in a social context.

[gillesandfio]

Rights are NOT granted by govt nor by God, but are prerequisite principles that protect our ability to exist as humans in a social context. Humans are rational animals who must have their ability to think and choose protected in order to reason (our only means to knowledge) and thus to preserve our humanity (our ability to choose and to thus make use of our own mind). It is only individuals that can choose to reason, and it is only individuals who experience happiness. Not the collective. A society has as constituents, individuals.

[RW-bpto]

So weird that they don’t teach this in public education. I wonder why? *sarcasm

[rszilvarn]

She was the ultimate hippy.
This woman was free as a bird, her mind. She unlocked me, and I'm forever greatful.

We belong to ourselves first, then to others, secondly.
That's the recipe for the best human experience to anyone could live by. You can't be happy with others, if you don't learn what happiness is to you, first!

Do what you want, but with the the choice of real freewill as it really is, in the way Ayn speaks of, it's also a recipe for better, more morally responsible society. You are free to reap the rewards, but also free to fail in free fall speed, the choice is yours to choose. That is freedom.

Respect for the individual, and the non-aggression principle, this the recipe for world peace.
Respect starts with your children, violence breeds violence.

When charity homes from the fruits of others wealth, and given for love of others, it's the recipe for the urging to contribute, to give back for the joy of kindness, causing others to willfully paying it forward in appreciation.

The respect of working for oneself, not the state, elite, religion, not some other ideal, is the recipe for freedom and prosperity.

This one single word "I".

"I" stands for individual.
Its "I" before "We".
When some says "we don't do that", they are actually telling you how to be a "sheeple".

Collectivism is a cancer.

[no_namematrix]

No-one thinks, writes or speaks like this anymore, such a shame!

[billmelater]

People pretend that rights are such a complicated concept, but they're really quite simple. What makes things difficult is when you approach everything with the presumption of the right to positive ends.

If you start with "the right to have", then rights are going to be a very elusive and contradictory idea for you. The idea that a positive end could be a primary right is against nature/the physical world. It can't exist and because it can't exist, it is through cognitive dissonance that those who perpetuate such an idea end up destroying rights each and every time they try to coerce positive ends into being.

[judejin]

rights are all actions that a man need to do in order to survive. such actions include see, hear, speak, eat, think, labor, own property, exchange/trade with others and etc.

[marcpadilla]

We don't do well on strength of character unless it involves acting soley in your own interests. A balance of power imposed from an outsider is essential for maintaining civility.

[martinljubic]

"Rights" arise before man gets into a social context. And it is the inalienable right to think
and act that gives rise to freedom of speech and freedom of action in any social context.
Man exercises his rights in and out of a social context. The only difference .... in a social
context his rights are made explicit. RIGHTS BEGIN WITH CONSCIOUSNESS and not just
when man gets into a social context. Morality and rights: they are corollaries the one
implies the other. One may separate them for the purpose of context ... whether they are
implicit or explicit .... but so long as man thinks and acts they are present and active.
Man takes his Politics with him everywhere as Man takes his Philosophy. A man can not
live without Philosophy. Politics is one of the 6 branches of Philosophy. Man is Political
even on a desert island .... especially when he has to deal with wild animals. With time on
his hands he can tame wild beasts to his Political views ... else its self-defense. Eat some
tame some, farm some.

Existence is Identity
Consciousness is Rational and Emotional Identification.

Man is the rational animal. But his emotions are both automatic- which is what gives rise
to, "A sense of Life", and emotions attach to all of man's concepts and percepts. Emotion
is omnipresent: one may be forgiven for ignoring there place in Philosophy for so long. Its
small wonder Romanticism has all but disappeared ignored and suppressed.

Metaphysics
Emotional Consciousness
Epistemology
Ethics
Politics
Aesthetics.

Loenard Peikoff went in search of a DIM hypothesis, while EMOTIONS were staring him in
the face all that time. Conceptual integration is both rational and emotional the reason
why it can be prone to errors. Ignoring/Suppressing emotion only makes matters worse. A
Sense of Life does not fade into the background. When rationality takes the lead One's
Sense of Life becomes exalted.

[Elazar]

Man must create to be worthy. Man, creating in his own right, is the true basis for all self-esteem. This authentic, earned self-esteem, gives rise to a joy and meaning of life, insofar as possible in duality. Human dignity, is neither a right nor a gift of birth. If this were true, dignity would have no meaning at all. To be sure, man earns his dignity by the way he comports himself throughout life. Currently, dignity and rights are falsely extorted, and applied to what is grossly undignified. In this, man can raise himself to a level higher than the angels, or fall to levels of discord found nowhere else in nature. This is the choice.

[dsgio]

Question 1 : Why a man in a island needs a moral code ?

[johnnash]

Only people have rights, government has no rights, government only has authority granted to it through the people's consent to be governed. My question to the Ayn Rand Institute is- Is a fetus a human being? What is Objectivism's philosophy on abortion?

[Irisphotojournal]

life is not a right.! so how does a person feel entitled to anything from anyone.? Life owes us nothing.

[theunknownatheist]

I’ve always HATED the assertion that rights are “god given”. 🙄 It’s a ridiculous concept. It doesn’t even have scriptural support

[dsgio]

The value of ones labor exists only in an organized society. .
In a island you live alone, whatever you produce (besides your food and shelter needs ) has no use and therefore no value.
Therefore an organized society has the moral right to require paying taxes to maintain these structures - ... if you want - of course - to be a member ...

( If you don't want to be a member you can live outside the organized society without its structures...which are responsible for your survival and the value of your labor.. you might find a place where there is no society which by its mere existence maintains the moral right to ask you to pay for maintenance)

[MrBLAA]

But... how will he survive without food stamps?

[gregorydragan]

What if the men that have the caviar also want the bread?

[mustang]

Unbelievable that the right to equal outcomes is now added to this list of socialist rights/demands.

[malfisher]

"the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"

[TheCompleteGuitarist]

A right is a social privilege that has been fought for, neogotiated or gifted to the reciepient, from those that control the given society. The only reason it might be seen as moral is because rights revolve around human necessity such as access to water, freedom of movement or speech etc.

For example, no animal has a right to water, it has to fight, negotiate or recieve as a gift that access to water from those that control or dominate supply. A ruminant animal may well be prevented from access to local water supplies by predators such as lions and only obtain equal access at times of stress when any animal finds it difficult to control the environment.