Reading Onora O'Neill

Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
pp. 93-131
Author(s):  
Nigel Biggar

This chapter completes the testing of the Sceptical Tradition’s objections to natural rights, by examining the thought of a selection of contemporary thinkers, in addition to that of John Finnis (in Chapter 4). Those selected are Onora O’Neill (and in relation to her, John Tasioulas, Elizabeth Ashford, and Henry Shue), Nicholas Wolterstorff, and James Griffin (and in relation to him, Allen Buchanan). From this examination the conclusion is drawn that the arguments made by Shue, Tasioulas, Ashford, and Griffin fail to dislodge O’Neill’s ‘radical’ critique, namely, that where capable holders of feasible correspondent duties have not been identified, universal human rights are illusory. This implies that rights are contingent on the circumstances of feasibility and capability, and that there is no constant natural right. The chapter then proceeds to draw general conclusions from the testing of natural rights-talk in Chapters 2 to 5. One seminal conclusion is that the paradigm of a right is positively legal, commanding the support of such institutions as police and courts. This is what explains its distinctive authority vis-à-vis other claims. It follows that a natural right, existing apart from civil society and so lacking institutional support, is, at best, analogous to a proper, legal right. However, since the very concept of a right connotes the stability and security of a legal right, natural rights-talk misleads and is best avoided. Therefore, while there is natural right or law or morality, and while there are legal rights justified by natural morality, there are no natural rights.


Author(s):  
Mark Lazenby

Trustworthiness, which, according to Onora O’Neill, includes competence, reliability, and honesty, is one of the habits of a good nurse. The profession of nursing ensures the competence of individual nurses. The profession has proven itself reliable through the competent work of individual nurses. Yet because people are in a dependent state when they need nursing care, they call upon individual nurses to be reliable. This has the effect of making individual nurses respond with reliability. Nurses do not deceive their patients, and in this way they are honest. But honesty also includes fairness. Nurses are fair in that they have little stake in profiting from the business of health care; nurses care for people regardless of wealth or social status; and nurses have a concern for the poor and dispossessed. Through trustworthy care, nurses add to the public’s storehouse of trust. This is, in part, the ethical significance of nursing.


Author(s):  
Simon Caney

In recent years a powerful case has been made in defence of a system of global governance in which supra-state institutions are accountable directly to the citizens of the world. This political vision- calling for what is commonly termed a ‘cosmopolitan democracy‘- has been defended with considerable imagination by thinkers such as Daniele Archibugi, Richard Falk, David Held, and Tony McGrew. At the same time, a number of powerful arguments have been developed in favour of cosmopolitan principles of distributive justice. Philosophers such as Brian Barry, Charles Beitz, Onora O'Neill, Thomas Pogge, Henry Shue, and Peter Singer have developed formidable arguments against wholly local theories of distributive justice and have argued for cosmopolitan conceptions of distributive justice.


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