Criterion of Rights
The Basic Idea
We are all raised to be good people - to act ethically and contribute to society. However, it’s not always easy to decide what is ‘ethical’, as different philosophies suggest different criteria to distinguish right from wrong. The criteria deemed necessary for an action to be considered moral is known as the criterion of rights. A criterion of rights is a standard upon which a decision or judgement should be based in order to ensure that people act morally,1 which in turn ensures all people have access to basic human rights.
We have to show the world a society in which all relationships, fundamental principles and laws flow directly from ethics, and from them alone. Ethical demands must determine all considerations: how to bring up children, what to train them for, to what end the work of grown-ups should be directed, and how their leisure should be occupied. As for scientific research, it should only be conducted where it doesn’t damage morality… the same should apply to foreign policy. Whenever the question of frontiers arises, we should think not of how much richer or stronger this or that course of action will make us, or of how it will raise our prestige. We should consider one criterion only: how far is it ethical?
– Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in his novel Cancer Ward2
