Freedom And Powers: The Rights Of Vulnerable Groups To Protect

The main theme of this dissertation is concerned with freedom and the capacity of realizing it. The research focuses on the rights of social vulnerable groups and their protection from the philosophical and ethical perspective.In this dissertation, 1 argue that human beings are free and each equally has the fundamental rights of freedom. However, the realization of those rights depends upon the agent's capability of realizing them. I take the notion of power as a capability of realizing the rights of freedom. Whether a person is free depends upon whether he or she has such a capability. Rights define "permissible" and "ought," but power defines "can" and "realization."The concept of "social vulnerable groups" is used in the sense of social structure stratification. I use it to reveal the relationships among the members of the society in the social structure. Social vulnerable groups are in a relatively weaker status in a society and in the bottom of the social stratified structure. The vulnerability or the unprotection of their rights of freedom is due to their lacking power of realizing them.By the analysis of the two concepts of "contract" and "status," I point out two different causes of the formation of modern social vulnerable groups: weak or weaker capability of competing with others in a free market and weak or weaker capability of influencing the making and the implementation of public policies in a social life. The former indicates the actual inequality in the free competition and the latter indicates the injustice in social institutions.The protection of the rights of social vulnerable groups is not only the requirement of conscience or benevolence or the principle of utility, but also the requirement of the universal realization of the rights of freedom of human beings as a kind. The purpose of the protection of fundamental rights of freedom of social vulnerable groups is to realize the equal freedom rights for all of us.The measures of the protection of the rights of the vulnerable groups should include the self-aids of themselves, as well as the regular welfare systems through the government, emergent governmental aids and charity funds collected from the society. The ways of realizing the self-aids of the vulnerable groups include strengthening self-consciousness of being a citizen, improving the agents' education, and promoting the capability of realizing their own rights of freedom by participating in public affairs. Only when the rights of the vulnerable groups are effectively protected can the society be in a harmonious state.