Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1982
Editor(s)
J. Ronald Pennock & John W. Chapman
ISBN
0814765831
Publisher
New York University Press
Language
en-US
Abstract
Two notions concerning the relation of rights to utilitarianism seem widely accepted, by both utilitarians and their critics. The first is that utilitarianism is hostile to the idea of moral rights. The second is that utilitarianism is capable of providing a normative theory about legal and other institutional rights. This chapter chiefly concerns the second thesis, and argues against it. But it also says something about the first. In previous writings I have challenged the first thesis, but here I shall suggest that it is sound. The upshot is that utilitarianism has a great deal of trouble accommodating rights.
Recommended Citation
David B. Lyons,
Utility and Rights
,
in
24
Ethics, Economics, and the Law
107
(J. Ronald Pennock & John W. Chapman ed.,
1982).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/2380
Comments
This chapter was included in volume 24 of the NOMOS series.