Rights Of The Utility And Its Limitations

Utilitarianism and the theory of natural law are two main traditions of moderntheory of rights. It is an important event of the clash between utilitarianism andrights-based theory for present philosophy of rights. In this article, the author try toresearch Bentham and Mill's utilitarian theories of rights to show the process of rightsutilized, and to request constraints and advantages of utilitarianism.This paper is composed of several parts. Introduction is to introduce theoreticalbackground and meaning of this theme, and to analyze connotation of the thesis ofrights utilized and the paper's frame.Chapter One puts forward the thesis of rights utilized and makes preparationsfor later discussion. First, the author analyzes the historical background andtheoretical resources of utilitarianism, which are important to understand somefundamental theses and characteristics of utilitarianism. Second, the author discussesthree important theses of utilitarianism, which are in direct relation to its rights theory.Here, the author divides the thesis of rights utilized into two aspects: justification andconcept of rights, and makes a simple explanation of methodology.Chapter Two expounds Bentham's criticism of natural rights based on hisutilitarianism, comparing with other critics in eighteen and nineteen century. Here,Bentham's criticism is called "rights denaturalized". Right denaturalized can beregarded as a sub-thesis of rights utilized.Chapter Three discusses the analytical concept of rights. It is the differencebetween utilitarian concept of rights and other concepts of rights that the formeremphasizes objective and positive description and analysis of structure of rightsgrounded on interest relation.Chapter Four discusses the problems of rights justification. In the rightsjustification of utilitarian theory, the author disproves the opinion that the purepositivism must induce the legal rights inclusion thesis and the moral rights exclusionthesis. Accordingly, the author expounds Mill's argument for the inclusive relationbetween utilitarianism and the concept of moral rights.Chapter Five defends against the criticisms of utilitarianism. These criticismsinclude two levels: methodological criticism---impossibility of utility calculations andmoral criticism---infringement of individual rights.Chapter Six concludes a qualified utilitarian theory of rights. Utilitarianismresponses to those criticisms and the responses reflect a tendency that it attempts to becompatible with rights-based theory. The tendency also can be found in Dworkin'stheory of rights. In my opinion, this tendency can be regarded as integration betweenconstraints and validity of utilitarian theory of rights.In the last part, the author simply reviews the significance of utilitarian rightstheory in Chinese context.