A suggestive history of Western moral and political sensibility could be written in terms of the relative status, at given periods and in different societies, i.e relative to its times.
Of course one is now faced with legalistic liberalism, (the human rights etc) which seeks to referee conflicts about values and lifestyles by constitutional law and legal procedures. We 'know' what is right and we will enact laws so as you 'know' too. But how do they 'know'?
Legalistic liberalism aims, usually by assigning rights, to entrench morality constitutionally, even though the problem it hopes to solve arises from moral disagreement about values and lifestyles. The conflicting moral beliefs can’t always be embodied in rights, on pain of contradiction (there obviously can’t be both a legal ‘right to life’ for foetuses, and a ‘right to choose’ abortion), so the rights have to ignore or overrule some of the beliefs. The effect is to make legal structure trump conflict
Of course one is now faced with legalistic liberalism, (the human rights etc) which seeks to referee conflicts about values and lifestyles by constitutional law and legal procedures. We 'know' what is right and we will enact laws so as you 'know' too. But how do they 'know'?
Legalistic liberalism aims, usually by assigning rights, to entrench morality constitutionally, even though the problem it hopes to solve arises from moral disagreement about values and lifestyles. The conflicting moral beliefs can’t always be embodied in rights, on pain of contradiction (there obviously can’t be both a legal ‘right to life’ for foetuses, and a ‘right to choose’ abortion), so the rights have to ignore or overrule some of the beliefs. The effect is to make legal structure trump conflict
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