Do people have rights in a fundamentally positive or negative sense?

Question

Are human rights fundamentally freedoms TO or freedoms FROM?

I am free FROM anyone stopping me from flapping my arms and flying, but I am not free TO flap my arms to fly -- gravity has some objections!

Does society work best when we have "negative" freedoms -- society won't stop me from X -- or when we have "positive" freedoms -- society will guarantee you X?

Are we free-er when we all have negative freedoms (freedoms from) or positive freedoms (freedoms to)?

Answer 1

OK.... That is a great question... from a Christian stand point I'd say we have both.... freedom from slavery to sin and death... and freedom to live life... freedom to love... freedom to rejoice... In everyday life it seems that there are a many more freedoms 'to' do things. Society works best when there are positive freedoms that stem from the 'freedom from' rights.

Answer 2

The only difference between the two is a semantic one... if that. Anything you consider to be a positive freedom could be re-stated as a negative one. For example:

You are free TO try to flap your arms and fly. You are not free FROM flapping your arms and remaining grounded.

Thus the only real difference between a 'negative' freedom and a 'positive' freedom is which is easier to translate into language. Language is an unreal construct, so even that will very from language to language, and has no real-world basis to tie rights into one category or another.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is essentially the same as no death, no slavery, and the pursuit of misery avoidance. ( :

Answer 3

People don't really have ANY rights.
All these things we think we are entitled to because we have rights is a farce.
They are actually privileges we have been granted by a society that has decided all citizens will have these certain 'rights'
After giving your question some thought I tend to think maybe negative freedoms are better. Too much emphasis...esp in America is given to the individuals sense of entitlement which was given to then originally by a benign society. In turn they despise the very society that gave them such 'rights' and feel entitled to more.