Note on Foundations of Human Rights: Foundationalism (original) (raw)

Religious and Secular Foundations of Universal Human Rights and Equality Before the Law

Although Western societies have for some time been moving away from their former Christian orientation, Jeremy Waldron has observed that liberal philosophy has yet to develop a non-religious way of speaking that would do justice to the dignity of all men and women and to the equality of all persons before the law. According to Waldron, " the Christian conceptions out of which modern liberalism originated remain richer and deeper than their secular offspring " and " continue offer themselves as resources and clusters of clues for the modern political debate. " 1 The question which I intend to address, in light of Waldron's observations, is that of whether we might still speak persuasively about the inherent dignity of all human persons, and also of their equal rights before the law, if we are now prevented in a liberal, pluralistic society from invoking an explicitly Christian conception of the person, or any other religious conception. I believe it is possible, although more difficult without the support of religious belief and religious language. Before I attempt to justify my position, I will briefly consider what we mean when we speak of rights, and particularly of natural rights. I will then examine the origins of rights language in the history of philosophy and jurisprudence. The focus of this paper is on the rationale for the belief that all human beings share in a certain excellence or dignity on account of being human, and for the associated belief that there are universal human rights, in other words for the belief that all human beings are equally bearers of certain rights, and thus ought to be treated as equals before the law. Some universal human rights will be specifically mentioned, including rights not to be subjected to murder, mutilation or undignified treatment, and a right to means of survival. It is not, however, my intention in this essay to try to provide a comprehensive listing of such rights, which would require a more thorough inquiry into the natural law and the basic goods which are the ends of human action. 2

The spiritual crisis: Human Rights and Religion Political Theory of Human Rights

The Journal of Human Rights, 2019

My intention in this research is to focus on the idea of spiritual crisis in human rights arena. The topic I shall be discussing concerns a basic set of issues dealing with the purpose of human rights, their moral foundation and their ultimate metaphysical ground. Simply put I shall be asking whether there is something special in human beings which entitles them to rights. Some arguments such as human agency, dignity and natural law tend to be quite abstract. It could therefore be tempting to assume that the issue, being of not much practical importance, is not relevant. But this would be a rush assumption because determining the foundation of human rights means determining the very legitimacy of human rights themselves in the international arena.

The Conceptions of Human Rights

2019

This chapter considers moral realism, our capacity for moral judgment, the diversity of systems of moral belief, and the normative force of human rights. It argues that the justification of moral practice, as we ordinarily understand it, does not require belief in God. Indeed, in some areas of ethical theory, atheism has explanatory advantages over theism. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details Neil, D. (2019). Conceptions of Human Rights. In J. W. Koterski & G. Oppy (Eds.), Theism and Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy (pp. 482-487). Farmington Hills, United States: Macmillan Reference. This book chapter is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/3824 Theists might reply that it would be a weakness in evolutionary theory if it could not explain why people have a capacity to see with their eyes what is happening on the moon, and why reason has a capacity to answer moral and mathematical questions that have no evolutionary advantage. Bu...

Moral Foundations of Human Rights

Moral Foundations of Human Rights, 2015

There is a sort of cynicism that argues human rights are inherently contingent, that is to say human rights need to be affixed to a realm or sphere that is timeless and unchangeable in order to adapt and address the ever-changing claims of the corresponding contexts. The ongoing debates as to whether theological, philosophical, and legal foundations provide the basis in which human rights can be grounded lead to a larger argument about the actual nature and universality of human rights. The challenge is grounding human rights in a foundation that surpasses the authority of all these foundations yet maintains elements from each for its evolution, development, and appeal. In this paper, I argue that the only sensible and plausible foundation for human rights is in fact a moral one that embodies the same moral principles that capture the essence and universality of human rights, one that is embedded in mutual dignity and respect, our common humanity.

Human Rights as the Negation of Religious Ethics

The Journal of Human Rights, 2019

The present paper takes as its moniker an assertion of that theologian-cum-state theorist, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel saw the Reformation as a moment of transition from dogma to reason in religion, concomitant with the establishment of the modern secular state in Europe. This paper will argue that whereas human rights appear as the ethical content or desire of the rational state, they do not offer a simple corollary or complement of religion; indeed they tend to reverse or negate principles that are central to most major religions. The argument is straightforward: I suggest that core religious symbologies of obligation and community-the obligation of one toward another and the community in God-are vacated in human rights. Human rights transform relations of obligation into systems of ownership and debt I am no longer obliged to you; rather you are indebted to me. They idealise a relation between the state and the individual that is fundamentally hostile to notions of community. The argument proceeds under four headings: first I look at 'freedom'-drawing on Hegel for the thesis that human rights be read as a vehicle of religious ethics in a secular state. Second, I refer to Freud and Levinas for the sense of the divine expressed through or manifest in guilt and 'obligation'; I contrast briefly the religious expression of these notions with that found in human rights discourse. Third, a section on 'community' argues that this is not merely ignored in human rights discourse, it is actively undermined. Finally, I look at the contemporary practice and theory of human rights envisaged as a system of self and sovereignty channelled through 'law' and the state. The argument does not assume incompatibility between human rights and religion as matters of personal belief-it does however identify rivalry between the normative directives on behaviour and self-understanding that inform each as a matter of practice.

Towards a Theology of Human Rights

Review & Expositor

Human Rights under siege Human rights are a fact in our world. They are listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose moral force has been recognized widely as international customary law; they are further defined and legally codified in the two Human Rights Covenants − the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Then there are the many Human Rights Declarations and Human Rights Conventions that deal with single issues like torture, the rights of the child, and religious liberty. They define these issues and then devise structures for their implementation. The texts of human rights instruments are readily available and accessible through United Nations channels. Human rights are an important fact in our world. All major threats to humanity are international and global in nature: the nuclear threat, the ecological crisis, poverty, the arms race, unemployment, drug traffic, torture, land mines, child abuse. Names and places like Rwanda, Burundi, Kosovo, East Timor and Chechnya witness to the terrible and terrifying fact that national, religious, ideological and economic interests, mixed with ethnic hatred and military and political power, can lead to oppression, exploitation, murder, and rape of people who cannot defend themselves. In a time when nationalism, religious enthusiasm, technology and trade fail to recognize national and cultural borders, what is there to stop their often-selfish exploits unless the human family develops a universal morality? Human rights have evolved to fulfill the need for a universal morality, a morality that transcends national, cultural and religious interests. Just as national laws have the function of protecting the vulnerable and the weak against the power and self-interest of the strong, so on the international scene moral structures are needed to define and protect human dignity.

The Ethical Bases of Human Rights

2019

Human rights have become the grounding of human solidarity. They are, today, the substance of the brotherhood of man. They take the place once occupied by our common clay, our common ancestry, and our common relationship with the Deity. This being the case, it is important to understand what, in turn, grounds human rights. There is nothing approaching a consensus: indeed, the impressive edifice on which much of the political order of the world now rests has been constructed based on the conscious decision by its principal authors to prescind from asking this basic question. Unsurprisingly under these circumstances, more and more rights are being proposed, and many divergent theories are propounded as to their bases. This Essay considers four proposed bases and rejects them. It proposes an account according to which the ethical basis for human rights is the protection of fundamental human attributes

The Religion of Human Rights: Debates and Interpretations

András Koltay (ed.): Christianity and Human Rights. Budapest: Ludovika University Press., 2021

The paper deals with those conceptions of human rights that view the latter as the object of a special "faith," "religion," or "secular religion." Although, because of the extreme vagueness of such terminology, the general analogy with religion remains problematic, it is also true in some respects the theory of human rights does show similarities to some so-called "religious" traditions, most of all Christianity.