书名: On Human Rights
作者: James Griffin (Author)
出版社: Oxford University Press, USA (April 7, 2008)
语言: English
ISBN-10: 0199238782
ISBN-13: 978-0199238781
Book Description
The term 'natural right', in its modern sense of an entitlement that a person has, first appeared in the late Middle Ages. When during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the theological content of the idea was abandoned in stages, nothing was put in its place. The secularized notion that we were left with at the end of the Enlightenment is still our notion today: a right that we have simply in virtue of being human. During the twentieth century international law has contributed to settling the question which rights are human rights, but its contribution has its limits.
The notion of a human right that we have inherited suffers from no small indeterminateness of sense. The term has been left with so few criteria for determining when it is used correctly that we often have a plainly inadequate grasp on what is at issue. Griffin takes on the task of showing the way towards a determinate concept of human rights, based on their relation to the human status that we all share. He works from certain paradigm cases, such as freedom of expression and freedom of worship, to more disputed cases such as welfare right - for instance the idea of a human right to health. His goal is a substantive account of human rights - an account with enough content to tell us whether proposed rights really are rights. Griffin emphasizes the practical as well as theoretical urgency of this goal: as the United Nations recognized in 1948 with its Universal Declaration, the idea of human rights has considerable power to improve the lot of humanity around the world.
It is our job now - the job of this book - to influence and develop the unsettled discourse of human rights so as to complete the incomplete idea.
Review
'A fresh and timely look at the whole field of human rights...Griffin adroitly picks his way through this judicial and moral minefield in which a person's perception of a "human right" can be condemned as a crime by someone of a different political or religious background.' -- Patricia Allen, Northern Echo
Readership
Scholars and advanced students of political, moral, and legal philosophy; anyone with an interest in human rights
About the Author
James Griffin is an Emeritus Fellow at Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford.
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作者: James Griffin (Author)
出版社: Oxford University Press, USA (April 7, 2008)
语言: English
ISBN-10: 0199238782
ISBN-13: 978-0199238781
Book Description
- Long-awaited study of the foundations of human rights
- Griffin is one of the world's leading moral philosophers
- Highly topical; recent international events mean that human rights are the focus of increasing attention
- Written for a broad readership in philosophy, politics, law, and beyond
- Essential reading for anyone with an interest in this controversial issue
The term 'natural right', in its modern sense of an entitlement that a person has, first appeared in the late Middle Ages. When during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the theological content of the idea was abandoned in stages, nothing was put in its place. The secularized notion that we were left with at the end of the Enlightenment is still our notion today: a right that we have simply in virtue of being human. During the twentieth century international law has contributed to settling the question which rights are human rights, but its contribution has its limits.
The notion of a human right that we have inherited suffers from no small indeterminateness of sense. The term has been left with so few criteria for determining when it is used correctly that we often have a plainly inadequate grasp on what is at issue. Griffin takes on the task of showing the way towards a determinate concept of human rights, based on their relation to the human status that we all share. He works from certain paradigm cases, such as freedom of expression and freedom of worship, to more disputed cases such as welfare right - for instance the idea of a human right to health. His goal is a substantive account of human rights - an account with enough content to tell us whether proposed rights really are rights. Griffin emphasizes the practical as well as theoretical urgency of this goal: as the United Nations recognized in 1948 with its Universal Declaration, the idea of human rights has considerable power to improve the lot of humanity around the world.
It is our job now - the job of this book - to influence and develop the unsettled discourse of human rights so as to complete the incomplete idea.
Review
'A fresh and timely look at the whole field of human rights...Griffin adroitly picks his way through this judicial and moral minefield in which a person's perception of a "human right" can be condemned as a crime by someone of a different political or religious background.' -- Patricia Allen, Northern Echo
Readership
Scholars and advanced students of political, moral, and legal philosophy; anyone with an interest in human rights
About the Author
James Griffin is an Emeritus Fellow at Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford.
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