If the one is right while the other is wrong, and the other is right while the one is wrong, then the best thing to do is to look beyond right and wrong.
— Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters
What are rights? They assume that some things are good and some things are bad. They imply that people who violate them are evil and deserve punishment.
But, really, what are they? Do we believe in them because they are fashionable or because we really believe in them?
Where do they come from? Do they emerge from the natural world or are they concoctions of our minds? If they are inherent in nature, how did we know that? How sure are we? If they are concoctions of our minds, then what’s stopping us to recreate them? (Making them absolutely “not absolute”!)
Why do rights claim to be universal? Why should everyone honor them? And yet, why are some rights esteemed in almost all places considered wrong in some cultures?
Do we really need rights for a better world? Do they really create more peace and harmony?
What are rights really? How can we be sure that they’re not simply expressions of individual preferences or strong emotions?
The unexamined life is not worth living.”
— Socrates