ABSTRACT
Many value theorists, especially those adhering more closely to classical liberalism, refuse to recognize rights to well-being. This chapter argues that there are no a priori reasons to reject the notion that people have rights to well-being as well as rights to freedoms. It suggests that classical liberal social and political theory and its most backward descendent, libertarianism, are untenable in that they maintain that violations of rights are the only legitimate ground for coercion and that rights to freedom are the only rights people have. The chapter shows that recognizing rights to well-being and social contract rights is justified because it helps us to better account for our considered moral judgments in certain types of moral situations. Such recognition allows us to construct a systematic moral, social, and political theory that is more in harmony with our considered moral judgments than any of its competitors.
