MIT271 Technology & Human Values

March 14:

Rights

Natural Rights Either:

God-given Self-evident moral

truths (based on human purposes)

John Locke (1632-1704)

Human rights Human status,

independent of laws or institutions

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Robert McGinn: Troubling Triad

1. Technological maximality (TM)• =df Quality of embodying in one of more of its

aspects or dimension the greatest scale or highest degree previously attained or currently possible

• e.g.?

2. Individual rights (entitlements)• e.g. life, liberty, property, procreative rights

3. Increasing numbers of rights-holders (?)

Situations of Technological Maximality INDIVIDUALAGGREGATIVE:

Simple (individually innocuous) Compound

Individual strength in the triad Technological Maximality:

Profit Faith in “technological fix” Prestige Gauge of progress Confusion of quantity and quality View of nature as homogenous Democratic consumer culture

Traditional Rights: Language obscures dependence on prevailing social

conditions, and provides “intellectual inertia” Increasing Numbers

Self-reinforcements in the triadReproductive “rights”TM allows traditional negative rights to

be viewed as positive rights

Remedies?Limit rights holders

Require limiting traditional rights, e.g. mobility, reproduction

Limit TM Require a conditional conception of rights

(implicit: limiting human rights = changing human rights)

Contextualized Theory of Human RightsEmpirically determinable basis of

human needs to survive and thriveStill functions as a focus to remedy

neglect and inequality

Grounds for infringing rights

1. Survival of society

2. Effective social functioning

3. Natural resources vital to society

4. Debilitating financial cost to a society

5. Significant cultural, historical, spiritual or aesthetic value to a people

6. Highly valued social amenity

Compare to Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons”Similar problem?Similar solution?