Research On Dworkin’s Concept Of Rights

Revival of political philosophy was a major event in the field of Westernphilosophy in20th century. Dworkin is one of the most prominent figures in rise ofthe political philosophy, he presented that "equal concern is the supreme political andsocial virtues" and advocated equality of each individual should be treated equally.Dworkin’s theory of ideology has caused widespread concern and ongoing discussions,this had made him becoming the people that we could not avoid when we studyingWestern political philosophy. At the same time, we could not avoid him when we dosome researches in the field of philosophy of law, either. The famous debate betweenHart and Dworkin dominated the Basic Thought for the entire contemporary Westernlegal development. After the end of World War II, based on the reflection on the legaltheory of justice, the revival of natural law had begun, Dworkin criticized the ideal oflegal cynicism, advocated the goal that the law included and serviced the morals, andchallenged Hart’s "legal positivism". In the past four decades, as the main line ofAnglo-American legal philosophy, around the struggle between Hart and Dworkin,countless books and articles came out, they either defended for Hart from Dworkin’scriticism, or supported Dworkin and opposed Hart and his supporters. Dworkin hasbecome a central figure who we have to face in the contemporary western philosophy.Although Dworkin’s theory system is deep and large, the right thinkingthroughout the philosophy of law and political philosophy in Dworkin’s theory,therefore, the purpose of writing this article is an attempt to sort out and exploreDworkin’ philosophy of law and political philosophy through the right clue.This paper is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the rightsthemselves, through sorting the historical evolution of the right, we explore themeaning of rights and discuss the history of the development of the natural rights, atthe same time, we discuss rights and utilitarianism, rights and positivism, Dworkin’ right theory. From the history of the rights, rights have become the theme of our times.As a representative of neo-liberalism, Dworkin defended his own theory of rights, inthe background of American society’s effort to re-examine the legal and politicalpractice. In the horizontal comparison on many subjects, we can be see that,Dworkin’s theory of rights is put forward on the basis of the criticism of legalpositivism and utilitarianism, he also objected to the idea of natural rights to acceptmetaphysics, trying to construct a political and social medium People’s powerfulrights. In the process of thinking Dworkin’s theory of rights, I believe that thesignificance of the rights of citizens is more important in practice, but not too muchconcerned about the extension of Dworkin’s rights, the rights of the award process isalso too idealistic. This makes rights not being practical, right on the theoretical forcecan therefore be greatly reduced.The second part discusses Dworkin’s philosophy of law from the perspectiveof rights, demonstrating that rights are the cornerstone of Dworkin’s theory. Startingwith Hart represented critique of legal positivism, Dworkin believes that morality andlaw have inner connection in the content, concepts and practices, and the basis of lawis to ensure the rights of the individual purporting political implication. Betweenmorality and the law, Dworkin takes rights as a bridge between the two, and coherentpolitical and moral rights of citizens embodied in the law for the legal principles oflegal interpretation by theory, Dworkin shows us the specific moral and legal inpractice, the integration of specific and necessarily linked. In Reflections on therelationship between morality and law, the author believes that there are legal andmoral Dworkin emphasizes the inevitable point of contact is questionable, law andmorality are both linked and independent entities, which will be in legal ethics lawdigestion social harm.The third part discusses Dworkin’s thoughts of political philosophy from theperspective of rights, stating that Dworkin describes the rights as the cornerstone ofthe theory of political philosophy, which is a trump over other political reasons. InDworkin’s view, the right to equality is the most important right of all rights, civilrights based on egalitarian political philosophy of contemporary unique and far-reaching contributions to Dworkin. Dworkin conceives the value of equality as thesupreme political value, claiming political and social equality is the supreme virtue. Inhis view, a strong sense of right means everyone as equal individuals are treatedequally, not only in the field of economic distribution, and during allocation decisions,everyone has to be related to how the benefits and opportunities right politicaldecisions allocated to equal concern and respect. When discussing equality, Dworkinalso put forward his own resources concept of equality, democracy and equality, hecriticized Rawls does not concern the principle of equality in personal responsibility,if not arbitrary, accidental, natural "draw lots" type results, but due to personalsubjective choice, you should not be resolved by the state and society, but the result ofthis inequality should be borne by the individual. Reflections on the concept ofequality in Dworkin’s theory, I believe that the lack of practical theory of equality ofresources. Dworkin emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility, but it isimpossible to determine personal responsibility, therefore, the theory of equality ofresources only does its mission of exploring the problem, while unable to put it intopractice.