Civil Rights From the Moral Point of View

Abstract

The aim of this article is to look at civil rights from different moral points of view. Diverse approaches in moral philosophy lead to alternative moral points of view. For the purposes of this article, five approaches have been selected. We try to see what would happen to civil rights if one takes for granted this or that approach. Section (1) deals with preliminary issues. In section (2) the nature of law and its relation to morality will be briefly discussed. Section (3/1) deals with civil rights from the virtue ethics point of view. In section (3/2) civil rights will be looked at from the deontological point of view whilst section (3/3) will explore civil rights from the utilitarian point of view; and finally, section (3/4) will discuss civil rights from the ʿAdliyyah (Muʿtazila & Imamiya) and Ashʿari points of view.