icosahedron Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 Greetings. I am organizing the rational rights of individuals into a logical hierarchy. Self-determination, which is the ethical expression of volitional power, is the basis of awareness, and has two complementary aspects: 1) Responsibility: Decide for yourself 2) Respect: Don't decide for others Or, in one sentence: Own ALL of YOUR decisions -- and NO MORE. Under the Objectivist creed, crimes occur only when one person forces/coerces/fools another to take decisions they would otherwise not take. All legitimate crimes against rational rights are of the form of canceling/overwriting the otherwise natural decisions of one or more individual minds. If you can't act on your conclusions (or even make the conclusions in the first place), then you are not free, and don't even own your mind or body. Basic Objectivist perspective. So, here's my Declaration of Independence: I will neither take decisions for another, nor allow another to take decisions that are properly mine. And, my Bill of Rights: An individual may act freely so long as he/she does not violate the decision-making process of another. Finally, my definition of crime: any act which violates an individual decision-making process. Still huge complexity in applications, especially when it comes to meting punishments. So? No magic wand here -- except, it would make the rest of the legal structure so much simpler and cleaner if it was simple and deductive. Not magic, just good technology, i.e., a PROPER RULE OF OBJECTIVE LAW, rooted in what we can prove is the root -- decisions, decisions! Cheers! - ico Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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