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From: testa-j%osu-20@OHIO-STATE.ARPA
Newsgroups: mod.politics
Subject: Re: "conflicting" rights
Message-ID: <12233148699.32.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sat, 23-Aug-86 14:12:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: RED.12233148699.32.MCGREW
Posted: Sat Aug 23 14:12:48 1986
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To: Hibbert.pa@Xerox.COM
Cc: KFL@MX.LCS.MIT.EDU,

From: Hibbert.pa@Xerox.COM

>I do not agree that rights can conflict.  According to my
>understanding of the term, a right is something that a person can
>claim absolutely.  In this particular case, you have a right to own a
>gun, and you have the right to use it safely.  You have another
>right, which is the right not to be aggressed against.  These rights
>do not conflict.  There isn't a case where you have to decide which
>one is more important than theother.  You can do whatever you like
>with your gun that doesn't involve aggression.  
>
>(I hope you understand the distinction I draw between natural or
>inalienable rights, and legal rights.  I speak here of the former. If
>you intended the latter, then you can take this as only pointing out
>that a distinction is meaningful and useful.)

I understand what you mean, but i'm not sure that i agree.  I still
think that it is possible for "natural" rights to conflict.  I've been
mulling this over, trying to think of an example.  However, i think
that it would be more useful if we used the same criteria.  If you
could send me a list of what you consider to be a person's natural
rights, we can proceed with the discussion from there.  Your list
should contain whatever exceptions apply: i.e. don't say "you have the
right to use a gun", but rather "you have the right to use a gun
without harming anyone not trying to harm you first". If you provide a
list of rights, and i describe a situation where those rights DO
conflict, we could go on forever with you modifying the list, i come
up with another example, etc,etc.  (Though you will not be "penalized"
for a limited number of oversights -- i'm not perfect, so i certainly
can't expect you to be.)  I will be looking forward to hearing from
you again.

                                        -joe testa-
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