Abstract

It is argued that rights alone cannot provide a complete account of morality. Personal autonomy is incompatible with moral individualism and strong rights against coercion, since autonomy requires not just options but acceptable options, requiring the provision of collective goods. Collective goods are public goods that are intrinsically valuable, public goods being goods that are valuable for many people in society. There are, then, fundamental moral duties that do not derive from rights. We should not seek to draw a fundamental distinction between moral principles concerned with one's personal goals and those independently concerned with others.