Understanding Duty, Ethics, and Human Rights
Why We Need to Develop a Sense of Duty
Reason as a Moral Criterion
Several philosophers proposed using a different ethical principle, independent of the specific purpose that we set in life. The principle of moral criteria that should guide our conduct is respect for what reason tells us.
Stoic Ethics
The Stoics defended this position. For Stoicism, man behaves virtuously, rather than being carried away by their passions, acts with the dictates of its reason. It is reason that dictates what their duty is at every time. The Stoics argue that humans don’t really achieve happiness unless we master it for ourselves through reason and will.
Kant and Responsibility
Kant proposed an ethical doctrine based on reason and the idea of duty. For Kant, what makes an action morally good is that it is an action taken by duty. What justifies our actions is not pleasure-seeking, or money, not helping others. The only guarantee that an action is morally good is that we make it with respect to the moral law.
The Categorical Imperative
The foundation of this law is the general principle Kant calls the categorical imperative:
- The hypothetical imperative expresses a conditional type of duty.
- The categorical imperatives are imperatives that express a duty in an absolutely unconditional way because it does not presuppose any wanting.
Kant’s categorical rule is proposed: work only on a maxim such that you want, while the law becomes universal.
Human Dignity as an End
How to Support the Idea of Duty
We need to have an order that all rational beings may share. That order is respect for human dignity.
Respect for Human Dignity
Operate in a rational account of the condition, which makes every human being deserve that dignity: “This condition forces us to respect the right of every human to seek their own happiness.” The principle of respect for human dignity does not depend on our tastes. These are the points we have in common.
We Feel Morally Obligated
Laws determine our impulses, but we believe the laws are governed by our will.
Who Has to Decide What Our Duty Is?
These laws we choose to shape our moral character and our sense of duty. Doing things by a sense of duty is not doing them because of external obligation, but because we are the source of duty.
Where We Are Morally Autonomous
Autonomy is the ability of humans to give themselves the laws that should govern their conduct and respect for oneself. We are morally autonomous to the extent that our actions are governed according to laws or principles that we ourselves have chosen using our reason and will.
When We Are Morally Heteronomous
Heteronomy is behavior that follows principles beyond our reason, and we behave according to laws. It occurs when we simply follow the laws of our impulses and desires. Our reason and our will are what make us free.
Individual Ethics
Individual ethics deals with the individual’s actions in relation to himself. Ethical morality has a field of reflection on the broader reality.
From Morality to Law
Respect for human dignity can be secured only if it becomes a duty required of everyone, not just morally, but also legally.
- A moral imperative depends on the conscience of the person.
- A statutory requirement is imposed on the individual from outside.
Life cannot be organized only with the moral conscience of people; it needs an external force that compels us to act.
Human Rights and Guaranteeing Respect for Human Dignity
Human rights are fundamental rights that protect our dignity as persons. They constitute the regulatory framework that ensures respect for human dignity in democratic societies.
The Ideal of Human Rights
The Doctrine of Human Rights
Intended as the foundation of a universal ethic, this doctrine has been clearly articulated for 200 years. Its formulation is as follows: Any human being has some basic rights that everyone has the obligation to respect. The most fundamental rights include the right to life, liberty, security, and equality before the law.
Early Formulations of the Doctrine of Human Rights
It came more than two centuries ago and has gained ground. In this process, the conception of what constitutes human rights has been evolving: it has become more profound and broader.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
In the late 18th century, the idea began to form that every human being has dignity and inalienable rights and that nobody can dispossess them. In this era, there was a push to establish representative governments. In 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was adopted.
Some Human Rights Still Limited
That statement favored progress for the time: “It recognized the sanctity of certain inviolable rights and established the principle that men are born and remain free.” This doctrine had notable gaps. Women had to wait less than a century to begin to be recognized.
The Extension of Human Rights
It was gaining acceptance throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and was applied to sectors of the population, becoming more extensive.
- Civil rights are negative or defensive rights: they should help to avoid that political power improperly interferes in the lives of the people.
- Political rights allow citizens to involve themselves in public matters, and they are positive rights that are the foundation of any democratic system.
- Social rights try to combine economic development with social justice through the support society provides to the most disadvantaged sectors of the population.