All persons have one fundamental, irrefutable, initial right, the right to one's self; and no other man, nor institution, can rightfully take that from them. To elaborate, the right to one's self includes the following: the right to life; the right to mind; the right to body; the right to autonomy. In the fourth right, it must be noted that no autonomy, as already expressed, may rightfully breach another's rights of self.
The application and defense of these rights are designed to produce goodness, but first we must define “good.” There are two types of good, natural good and conditioned good. The natural good is instinctual; it's the individual's independent rationalization of making good decisions. The conditioned good is made up of learned morals known to be good; the conditioned good is comprised, but not limited to religious, parental, and cultural influence. These goods are best utilized together, rather than separately, natural good reasons standards for a conditional good, which is subject to reason and modification through natural good.
Right to Life
The Right to Life: Survival is a natural instinct, observable even in nonhuman animals; this implies that reason is not necessarily required to establish one's will to live. Nonhuman animals observe an ethical nature by protecting their life and the life of their kin. As rational creatures, we can take this instinct of survival further and rationalize that because most persons have the desire the live, it is beneficial to all, including the individual whom desires life, not to take another's life from them; doing so subjects them to modes of recourse equal to their action, much like Newton's Law of Cause and Effect. This rationalization is a natural good, as it benefits not only the individual egotistically, but society altruistically as well. As a natural, and by definition, rational good, its concept can and has (historically) been applied to become a conditional good, being cited in religious and cultural moral systems.
Right to Mind
The Right to Mind: It is undeniable that our thoughts and ideas are of our own; they cannot be taken away because they are of an intangible nature. While the argument may arise that another person can give an idea to another and create influence, that doesn't take away the receiver's ability to cognitively produce that idea on their own; and, unlike a tangible object, when that idea is given to another person, it is merely duplicated since the original owner of that idea did not lose it in the transfer. The transfer and maintaining of ideas allows one to confine an idea, to which they cherish, to themselves and observe and egoistic course of action; the expression and transfer of these ideas allows the opportunity of expanding and understanding alternative perspectives, ultimately aimed for the good of others in an altruistic sense.
As intangible things, one's mind cannot harm another, an idea can influence a harmful action, but the idea itself is harmless. Thus, no proposed authority can rightfully forbid or punish an idea. This right to your own mind is a natural good, in that it exists only as a creation of one's ability to reason and produce thoughts; the influence and expression of ideas and thoughts is a conditional good, because while the idea of racism has correlations with acts of violence, all those who subscribe or express such an idea prone to acting violently because of it. The idea, by itself, is harmless.
Ideas of the natural good that predominantly become conditional goods are those of virtue, an admirable trait as observed by others. An idea that has beneficial influence, such as one that an individual has experienced and observed the rise in good in oneself egoistically, can be expressed altruistically and influenced into a conditional good, one which many may live by.
Right to Body
The Right to Body: Our body is our own; we are given one, and no individual can take another person's body, as it is the physical container of the other three rights. As a tangible object, an individual can give its body away, such as donating an organ.
Right of Autonomy
The Right of Autonomy: The self governing of the individual's self is the self governing as it pertains to the right of life, mind and body. One has the right to decide how to live, in both the manner and conditions in which they live. With right of mind, an individual has the right to think any thought, to express any idea, and the right to value ideas as they see fit. With right of body, the individual's body is at their own disposal; they may ingest any substance, whether it be a particular food of preference, a substance, or even a battery if they will it. The individual reserves the right to enrich or destroy their body.
