The Community of Rights

In this text, Alan Gewirth extends his principle of equal and universal human rights, the "Principle of Generic Consistency", into the arena of social and political philosophy, exploring its implications for both social and economic rights. He argues that the ethical requirements logically imposed on individual action hold equally for the supportive state as a community of rights, whose chief function is to maintain and promote the universal human rights to freedom and well-being. Such social afflictions as unemployment, homelessness and poverty are basic violations of these rights, which the supportive state is required to overcome. A critical alternative to both "liberal" and "communitarian" views, this book should be of interest to anyone engaged in the debate over social and economic justice.