Description
Book SynopsisMorsink asserts that all people have human rights simply by virtue of being born into the human family and that we can know these rights without the aid of experts. He shows how the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights grew out of Enlightenment principles honed by a shared revulsion at the horrors of the Holocaust.
Trade Review"[
Inherent Human Rights] continues the project of putting political philosophy to work in the service of human rights. . . . Like all of Morsink's work, this book is thoughtful and carefully researched; his ability to develop difficult ideas both broadly and deeply is the book's most obvious virtue." *
Perspectives on Politics *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. The Need to Think Beyond the Political
Chapter 1. The Metaphysics of Inherence
—Enlightenment Precedents
—From Natural to Human Rights
—Duties and the Fallacy of Implementation
Chapter 2. Obeying the Conscience of Humanity
—Rights from the Wrongs of the Holocaust
—The Doctrine of Manifest Illegality
—The Framework of Moral Intuitionism
Chapter 3. The Shortcomings of the Golden Rule
—Micro: Alan Gewirth's Rationalization
—Macro: John Rawls's Ethnocentrism
Chapter 4. Human Rights Cosmopolitanism
—The Moral World Picture of the Declaration
—The Capabilities Approach to Human Rights
—Fitting in Patriotism and Multiculturalism
Chapter 5. The Charge of Unrealistic Utopianism
—New Rights Call for a New World Order
—The Construction of Human Rights Thresholds
—Social and Economic Covenant Examples
Chapter 6. Human Rights and Democratic Participation
—Habermas on Popular Sovereignty and Human Rights
—The Right to Participation in Substantive Democracies
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
