: About Me

I'm currently a PhD student of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. I am currently researching theories of semantics and ontological commitment. My interest in semantics stems from a desire to understand the absolute fundamentals behind our ability as human beings to communicate. My hope is that I can someday use this research to inform a study into the nature of discourse between individuals, how discourse is situated within institutional structures, and whether there is some way of structuring discourse such that it provides strength to those institutional structures in which it is situated (and avoiding situations where the institutional structures stifle individual discourse).

In many of my articles you'll find tentative first steps toward this final goal. My general intuition is that we are far more determined by various forces in our day to day life than most of us are willing to acknowledge - but that this is not a necessity. My goal here is to try to illuminate some of those forces that determine how we think and behave so as to provide the means for those to change their behaviour - if that is what they wish.

You can read more articles at my blog http://www.danielhaggard.com

Arts & Humanities > Political Philosophy Assessing the theories of human rights

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Choice and interest theories of rights both seek to clarify our intuitions and use of the term 'rights', by offering differing clarifications of its meaning. In so doing, both theories favour certain aspects of the intuitive picture, while neglecting others. This essay will provide an exposition of both theories, outlining the major points of disagreement and argument. It will argue that the discourse does not resolve itself either way. Both theories fail to clearly satisfy certain fundamental aspects of our intuitive understanding of the nature of rights. I will conclude with the suggesti...

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