And if I want to support improvements in the treatment of employees by their employers, I can base my position on a reference to a fundamental right of each person to be respected by others. The outline of such appeals to human rights is fairly familiar. So far so good. But now comes the problem. We are not in complete agreement either as to how many outcroppings there are or as to how large they are.
Examples are all too easy to find.
Some humans are convinced that one of the sexes has a fundamental right to rule over the other. Others are just as sure that no such right exists. We may agree that there are both inheritance rights and a right to a fair share of the earth's resources, but we may disagree on which is to take precedence. And cases such as these do not even tax the imagination. We are used to people making claims of rights within certain boundaries of custom and tradition.