Chapter One
Whence Natural Rights?
1. What’s Wrong with Natural Rights?
2. Problems with the Non-Aggression Principle?3. Why the Reluctance to Appeal to Natural Rights?
Chapter Two
How to Understand and Justify Individual Rights: A Synopsis
1. Rights as a Moral ConceptLiberty as a Moral Notion
Understanding the Role of Rights
Individualistic Perfectionism
Why We Have Rights
A Realist Basis for Rejection of Equinormativity2. The Primacy of Rights in Political Philosophy
The Virtue of Justice and Metanorms
Three Senses of Justice
Social Justice and Natural Endowments
3. Conclusion
Chapter Three
On Principle
1. Rights, Principles, and Practicality
Understanding the Context for Side-Constraints
The Range of Applicability of Individual Rights
On Being Practical
Ideals and Principles
Conflicting Principles
2. Natural Rights as Principles
3. Conclusion
Chapter Four
Objections to Natural Rights and Replies
1. Some Preliminary Objections
Natural Rights do not Precede their ImplementationNatural Rights are Over-Individualized
Natural Rights are Basically a Matter of Power
Natural Rights are neither Primary nor sufficiently Obligatory
2. A Basic Metaethical Objection
Natural Rights and the “Naturalistic Fallacy”
The Alleged Naturalistic Fallacy
Deeper Ontological and Epistemological Issues
Natural Rights are Grounded in Controversial Metaphysics
3. Impracticality Objections
The Irrelevance of Natural Rights
Natural Rights Fail to Guide
The Absoluteness of Natural Rights
The Impotency of Natural Rights
4. Natural Rights and the “Human Nature Problem”
The Failure of Inclusivity in Natural RightsThe Problematic Concept of Human Nature
Chapter Five
Segue
1. MacIntyre, Rights, and Tradition
2. Natural Rights and Metaphysical Realism
Chapter Six
On the Rejection of Metaphysical Realism for Ethical Knowledge
1. Essentialism without Realism
2. Finding Facts in a World of Values
Metaphysical Realism and Conceptual Relativity
Conceptual Relativity and Getting it Right
Idealized Rational Acceptability and the Democratization of Inquiry3. Questioning Idealized Inquiry
Whose freedom? Which Way of Expressing Human Intelligence?
Ayn Rand and Universalizability: Asking Questions You Were Always Afraid to Ask
The Human Capabilities Approach: Legislating for Human Flourishing
Questioning the Criteria of Idealized Inquiry
4. Conclusion
Chapter Seven
On the Alleged Demise of Metaphysical Realism
1. Constructivism, Metaphysical Realism, and Aquinas’s Distinction
2. Replying to some Basic Objections to Epistemological Realism
On Imposing a Conceptual Scheme on the World
The Problem of Hooking on to the World
A Neo-Aristotelian-Thomistic View of Concepts and Cognition
The Myth of the FrameworkDefining the Nature of Something
On Being Fallible and Limited3. Putnam, Metaphysical Realism, and Conceptual Relativism
Chapter Eight
The Importance of the Realist Turn
1. Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory
2. Facing a New Direction and/or Recovering an Old One
Douglas B. Rasmussen is Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, NYC, USA.
Douglas J. Den Uyl is Vice-President of Educational Programs at Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, USA.
“The Realist Turn provides a necessary philosophical compass to
reorient liberalism.” (Nayeli L. Riano, Law & Liberty,
lawliberty.org, January 26, 2021)
“Rasmussen and Den Uyl’s carefully worked out views deserve a wide
audience.” (David Gordon, The Philosophical Quarterly, December 2,
2020)
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