Philosophical Foundations for Human Rights

Bibliographic Data

ID23169333
AuthorsKerri Woods (0000-0002-3010-6485, corresponding author)
Year2014
Pages43-66
Publication date2014-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueHuman Rights (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherMacmillan Education UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/978-1-137-31466-6_4
OpenAlexW2531866833
ISBN9781137314666
LanguageEN
Citations received7

The question of sound philosophical foundations for human rights continues to generate controversy amongst theorists, if not amongst many (perhaps most) of those who campaign for human rights in the real world. The latter may find frustrating the persistent scepticism of some human rights theorists about the normative foundations of human rights claims, though the overwhelming majority of moral, legal and political theorists in fact endorse human rights. Yet it seems to me that Perry is absolutely right to insist that a theoretical justification for human rights is practically necessary — whenever and wherever human rights are challenged in the real world, advocates of human rights need to be able to offer reasons in support of their demands. If an agent ought to do X because a theory of human rights says so, then the agent might reasonably ask why he should be guided by a theory of human rights — in other words, what are the grounds or foundations of human rights claims? This question matters, not least because, as Michael Freeman points out, 'rights without reasons are vulnerable to denial and abuse' (1994, p. 493).

Denial · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Fundamental rights · Human rights · International human rights law · Law and economics · Normative · Political science · Politics · Reservation of rights · Right to property · Rights of Nature · Skepticism · Sociology · Human Rights and Development · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology

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