The Philosophy of Human Rights: Contemporary Controversies
Gerhard Ernst, Jan-Christoph
Heilinger - Walter De Gruyter Incorporated, 2012
The notion of "human rights" is widely
used in political and moral debates. The core idea, that all human beings have
some inalienable basic rights, is appealing and has an important practical
function: It allows moral criticism of various wrongs and calls for action in
order to prevent them. The articles in this collection take up a tension between
the wide political use of human rights claims and some intellectual skepticism
about them. In particular, three major issues call for clarification: the
questions of how to justify human rights, how to determine their scope and the
corresponding obligations, and how to overcome the tension between universal
normative claims and particular moralities
