Rights versus Rights; T. Machan

RIGHTS VERSUS "RIGHTS" 309 Here then are two insights-one from political philosophy and one from ethics that make a crucial difference as to how one morally evaluates the activities of persons within a capitalistic socioeconomic system. The idea that individual rights provide the basis for a political/legal context that pro tects the exercise of practical reason by individuals and the idea that the human good is objective, but individualized, are funda mental. It is important for anyone taking up issues in business ethics not to forget the import of these ideas-as well as others from political philosophy and ethics-for the understanding of capitalism. D 1. See Douglas B. Rasmussen and Douglas J. Den Uyl, Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1991) for a defense of individual rights. 2. Eric Mack, "The Ethics of Taxation: Rights Versus Public Goods," in Dwight R. Lee, ed., Taxation and Deficit Economy (San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1986), pp. 489-490.