Description
Book SynopsisConceptualizing the nature of reality and the way the world functions, Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko analyzes the foundations of human rights law in the strict subject/object dichotomy. Seeking to dismantle this dichotomy using topo-logic, a concept developed by Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō, this topical book formulates ways to operationalize alternative visions of human rights practice.
Subject/object dichotomy, Yahyaoui Krivenko demonstrates, emerges from and reflects a particular Western worldview through a quest for rationality and formal logic. Taking a metaphysical and epistemological perspective, this book explores the alternative views of reality and logic, developed by Kitarō, to demonstrate how topo-logic can enable both a theoretical and a practical renewal of human rights and overcome the subject/object dichotomy. Examining the recent growth of social movements, decolonization and diversification of discourses about human rights, and substantive equality, the book identifies these developments in contemporary human rights as indications of a movement towards a topo-logical view beyond the subject/object dichotomy.
Students and scholars of critical legal studies, legal theory and philosophy, and international human rights law will find this book to be an invigorating read. Laying ground for the possible renewal and enhancement of human rights law, it will also be a useful resource for practitioners of human rights law.
Trade Review‘Yahyaoui Krivenko’s vision of the human rights philosophy is most needed today to overcome the limitations of human rights narrowly construed around the individualised experience of each human being. This reconceptualisation will be particularly useful when applied to issues such as environmental degradation and climate change. Since the planet is an ecosystem which is not human-centered, we need to initiate a decentering of human rights allowing us to embrace the complex interactions between all life forms and natural processes on Earth, and to situate the human experience among this new conception of “reality”.’ -- François Crépeau, McGill University, Canada
Table of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction to The Logic of Human Rights 2. Reason, logic, and the subject/object dichotomy in the West 3. The traditional logic of human rights and the subject/object dichotomy 4. Beyond the subject/object dichotomy: topo-logic 5. Human rights through topo-logic: a theoretical foundation 6. Human rights through topo-logic: possibilities of operationalization 7. Conclusion to The Logic of Human Rights Index
