“The Chinese concept of rights arose, then, in a context of power. Western nations had become powerful enough, and imposed their will in nakedly aggressive fashion, so that they had to be addressed in their terms. Eventually rights in Chinese thought are attributed not just to nation states but also to individual people.” PeopleEnoughIndividualTermPowerfulFashionWesternChineseAggressive Author:David Wong
“People come to have different moral beliefs because they have different non-moral beliefs about relevant facts. People are disposed to believe whatever justifies the practices and institutions that benefit them. But I argue that not all moral differences can be explained away in such a fashion. Some of the most profound disagreements come from differences in priority assigned to values such as relationship and community on the one hand, and individual rights and personal autonomy for the individual, on the other hand.” PeopleBelieveDifferentValuesIndividualBeliefCommunityMoralFashionProfoundArguingPrioritiesJustifyRelevantAutonomyDisagreementIndividual Rights Author:David Wong
“My own sense as an American is that we have begun to experience the disadvantages of framing virtually all moral issues in terms of individual rights. American history has consisted of swings back and forth between rights talk on the one hand and talk of duties, responsibilities, and the common good on the other hand. Recent decades have seen a big swing toward rights, and conceived in very individualistic terms, which hasn't always been the case even with rights.” IndividualTermCommonResponsibilityMoralDutyAmerican HistoryCommon GoodIndividual RightsFraming Author:David Wong
“It is not simply the individual who benefits from and is protected by rights, but the society as a whole. Protected freedoms to dissent and criticize those in power help keep abuses of power in check. They combat tendencies of elites to become isolated from and ignorant of the people they deeply affect through their decisions.” PeopleHelpingIndividualDecisionAbuseIgnorantCriticizeDissentAbuse Of Power Author:David Wong
“For Confucians, we are such thoroughly social beings that individual and social interests are not in the end regarded as fundamentally incompatible. Though there will be conflicts, the central mission of moral and political philosophy is to foster approaches that will render them compatible or if that is not possible in some cases, to keep a reasonable balance so that neither side is consistently sacrificed for the sake of the other.” PhilosophyPoliticalIndividualInterestMoralBalanceConflictConsistentlyPolitical Philosophy Author:David Wong
“Individuals understood in relational terms cannot be conceived as fully separate from their communities. Others in one's community may already be a part of the self. This conception of the person as overlapping in identity with others has normative implications for what constitutes the good of the individual and how that good relates to the good of others. One's relationship with others can form a part of one's good as an individual, such that one can have a compelling interest in the welfare of these others and in one's relationship with them.” IndividualTermInterestCommunityIdentityWelfare Author:David Wong
