Re: rights

["Steven D. Arnold" <yami@dementian.com>]

> The
> concept of "rights" was a key justification for the (relatively late)
> addition of jinzi innate.

There seem to be many useful shades of meaning in this area, including:

1. Something innate which is part of the definition of the thing.  That is,
you can't have an X without property Y.  This, I think, is the usual sense
of "innate human rights."

2. A property conferred by rule, code, or law, but not necessarily innate to
the thing.

3. A property conferred by ethics or morals.  For example, it may be that
everyone ought to treat you nicely, but there is no requirement in
fundamental rights or in law that they do so.  (This is an imprecise
equivalent of "should."

3a. Another sense of "should" in which the property is conferred by
practicality.  That is, something is a certain way because it is best for
all concerned.  The wisest person leads the group because his or her wisdom
is beneficial.

4. A property conferred by the wish of another person or entity; a
privilege.  If someone allowed you to use their computer, that would be a
privilege which they could take away.  If a privilege is granted by rule or
law, sense #2 should be used.

5. A property granted by custom.  It's this way because it always has been,
or because it is simply the way we do things.  In the USA, people drive on
the right hand side of the road both because it's a law, but also because
it's a custom or convention.

6. A property conferred by fact.  A settler owns land because he or she was
there first (assuming that's actually the case, which is rare; more often
the settler owns the land because he or she kicked the previous inhabitants
off, in which case the sense to use is #7).

7. A property conferred by force.  A dictator rules because of force -- that
is why he or she has the "right" to rule.


There may be others.  It seems quite possible that lujvo might be formed to
meet these semantic needs.  I don't know if any existing lujvo do, since I
am more focused at the moment on learning the gismu.


steve