What Are Rights?

I believe in natural rights, but not in nearly the same way as most people who believe in natural rights. I believe that a person's nature should determine what their rights are, but that there is very little in common among humanity as a whole, and that the idea of a universal "human right" doesn't really make much sense. Each person has a nature that determines their proclivities and the conditions under which they would be able to live the best life possible.

Most human beings, typical human beings, are very similar in nature, but there are significant portions of humanity that don't fit in. These people deserve as much autonomy and self-determination as possible.

The desires and motivations that are deepest and most important to a particular human being are not entirely determined by biology. There are some inescapable motivations that are biologically dependent, but there are also some that are completely induced by environment and some that are a mixture of the two. These motivations are no less strong and basic than the purely biological ones. As such, societies that have been inducing certain values that have become inexorable in the members of those societies should have the autonomy to accommodate their people according to their natures.

The primary criticism of any theory of natural rights is that the way that a person "is" does not imply that that is the way this person "ought" to be. I agree with this assessment, but I agree with it because what a person "ought" to do is irrelevant if their nature forces them to do something. I believe that to say someone "ought" to do something, one is implying that they "can" do it. If a person's nature forces them to behave a certain way, it makes no sense to say that they "ought" not to behave that way. They have no choice but to behave according to their nature.

The one human characteristic that is significant for all of humanity is that there are people who will have a nature that is different from any other member of humanity, therefore the only universal human right that should be taken seriously is the ability to opt out of any society that doesn't recognize one's true nature. Anyone who wants to leave a particular country should be allowed to leave that country to seek one that will better accommodate them.