Universal Human Rights and Cultural Diversity
Social Philosophy Today 24:13-26 (2008)
| Abstract | I argue that a reasonably comprehensive doctrine of human rights can be reconciled with at least a good deal of diversity in cultural belief and practice. The reconciliation cannot be achieved by trying to show that there is in fact a cross-cultural consensus about the existence of human rights, partly because no valid inference to the normative status of human rights can be drawn from the existence of such a consensus. However, by highlighting the premises rather than the conclusions of normatively persuasive arguments for human rights, I argue that a reasonably comprehensive doctrine of universal human rights can be squared with what is known about the diversity of cultural beliefs and practices. This is because the (empirically plausible) denial that there is in fact a cross-cultural consensus about the existence of human rights can go hand-in-hand with cross-cultural endorsement of the normative considerations that underpin human rights doctrine | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesRowan Cruft (2005). Human Rights, Individualism and Cultural Diversity. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 8 (3):265-287.
Theresa Waynand Tobin (2005). The Non-Modularity of Moral Knowledge. Social Philosophy Today 21:33-50.
William Sweet (1998). Human Rights and Cultural Diversity. International Journal of Applied Philosophy 12 (1):117-132.
Sumner B. Twiss (2004). History, Human Rights, and Globalization. Journal of Religious Ethics 32 (1):39 - 70.
Richard Wilson (ed.) (1997). Human Rights, Culture and Context: Anthropological Perspectives. Pluto Press.
Benjamin Gregg (2010). Anti-Imperialism: Generating Universal Human Rights Out of Local Norms. Ratio Juris 23 (3):289-310.
Michael C. Davis (ed.) (1995). Human Rights and Chinese Values: Legal, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives. Oxford University Press.
John Mahoney (2007). The Challenge of Human Rights: Origin, Development, and Significance. Blackwell Pub..
Dana Irina (2011). A Culture of Human Rights and the Right to Culture. Journal for Communication and Culture 1 (2):30-48.
Mathias Thaler (2010). How (Not What) Shall We Think About Human Rights and Religious Arguments: Public Reasoning and Beyond. E-Cadernos CES (9):115–133.
P. J. Lomelino (2007). Individuals and Relational Beings. Social Philosophy Today 23:87-101.
Erol Kuyurtar (2007). Are Cultural Group Rights Against Individual Rights? The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 3:51-59.
David Little (1999). Review: Rethinking Human Rights: A Review Essay on Religion, Relativism, and Other Matters. [REVIEW] Journal of Religious Ethics 27 (1):149 - 177.
A. Belden Fields (2003). Rethinking Human Rights for the New Millennium. Palgrave Macmillan.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-12-02Total downloads7 ( #133,587 of 549,550 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,397 of 549,550 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
