Contemporary Moral Problems by James E. White Chapter 1: Joel Feinberg(The Nature and Value of Rights)

In this part of the chapter the author shared the essay of Joel Feinberg. Joel Feinberg is a professor of philosophy at the University of Arizona. He authored several significant books concerning philosophy and human behavior. I think that having this background he would be able to share a lot of interesting theories and insights about ethics. Since most of the time morality is used as a basis for something being ethical or not I think that a person who knows a lot about morality would be able to share some important theories and insights about ethics. In this essay Joel Feinberg wants to demonstrate or show how important rights are in connection with morality. Without rights people will be deprived of freedom and voice out their concerns. If they are unable to do this they will be deprived of justice and without all these freedoms people will become miserable. I also found Joel Feinberg’s example really interesting. He described a town called Nowheresville and in this town people have no rights. He described Nowheresville as having pretty and virtuous people and a friendly environment. The only thing missing in this town is rights. He used this example to criticize Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative.