Eric Mack

Sighting RightsThe Realm of Rights. Judith Thomson

Judith Thomsons The Realm of Rights is a rich and complexly argued work devoted to providing an account of the character of rights and an elucidation of which rights we have. It is a work of enormous philosophical craftsmanship which should now stand as one of the primary texts in terms of which philosophical discussion of rights will proceed. An adequate presentation of the argumentative content of this work cannot possibly be provided within the confines of a review article. To provide room for even a modest amount of critical analysis of some features of Thomsons theory, I have tried to limit myself in Sections I and II of this review to an almost uncritical emendation of Thomsons contentions. In Section III, I focus explicitly, albeit all too briefly, on a few of the problems which I believe confront Thomsons doctrine.