ProtoSociology

Volume 18/19, 2003

Understanding the Social II – Philosophy of Sociality

Institutions, Collective Goods and Moral Rights

In this paper I offer a teleological account of social institutions. Specifically, I argue that: (a) social institutions have as their defining purposes or ends the provision of collective goods, and; (b) participants in social institutions have moral rights to such collective goods, and the moral rights in question are individual, and jointly held, moral rights.