The work also presents a clear exposition of some contemporary philosophical theories of rights developed independently of the natural rights paradigm and discusses the theories wherein the conception of rights is found to be compatible with utilitarianism. And, finally, while briefly arguing for discursive understanding of human rights based on the diversity of morals that is embedded in different cultural traditions of the world and for reconstruction of the conception of human rights in more inclusive and cross-cultural terms, the author analyses the conception of human dignity from the Vedantic perspective as a case study, which is regarded as an important underlying principle of human rights.
The volume is intended to introduce students and practitioners of human rights, and general readers to the philosophy of human rights.
Having given an account of the origins and historical development of the idea of human rights, the present study analyses the doctrine of natural rights and its critiques, and assesses the world-view that has affected its formulations. The work also presents a clear exposition of some contemporary theories of rights developed independently of the natural rights paradigm as also the theories wherein the conception of rights is found to be compatible with utilitarianism. And while briefly arguing for discursive understanding of human rights based on the diversity of morals that is embedded in different cultural traditions of the world and for reconstruction of the conception of human rights in more inclusive and cross-cultural terms, the present work analyses the conception of human dignity from the Vedantic perspective as a case study, which is regarded as an important underlying principle of human rights.
A preface is perhaps the only place in a study where one can strike a personal note. My own interest in the philosophy of human rights dates from 1997, the year in which I came in touch with Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) based in the state of West Bengal, India. This organization works for democratic and human rights generally independently but sometimes in coagulation with other non-state groups and bodies. As a well-wisher member of this human and democratic rights body, I have always been more focused on the philosophical dimension of human rights than involved in its activism. Accordingly, I have been engaged in collecting study materials from different libraries as also in reading and writing on the topic, which have been going on at a very slow pace. The present work is the outcome of my intellectual exercise with the idea of human rights during all these years.
The Challenges
Some of the challenges to be addressed within the present study would include:
1. What are rights in general, and what are human rights in particular?
2. What are the distinctive features of human rights that distinguish them from other rights?
3. How the notion of natural rights is distinguished from contemporary concept of human rights?
4. What features of human beings justify the claim that they are entitled to have some intrinsic and inalienable rights?
5. Can human rights represent a universal moral standard?
Are cultures, other than the Western, potential grounds; path-breaking for developing some such conceptions of rights on their alive ideas and own?
Above all, this work presents the diverse perspectives and idening outlook philosophical controversies on rights, which will help readers d conspectus of to understand what constitute human rights and how they laim for human occupy an essential place in our contemporary social and and all societies political life.
What Does Philosophical Understanding Mean?
Let us now proceed by asking a crucial question: What does it with regard to mean by the philosophical understanding of human rights?
First, the primary task of any philosophical approach to) phisycal analysis human rights, for that matter, to any topic, is to lay bare the afresh with the meaning of the concept itself, which at its first encounter with? in. The present us is likely to remain obscure and unintelligible. Philosophic endeavour makes explicit what is implicit, and exposes what is covered up. So the understanding of human rights from the philosophical perspective means to become clearly aware of in the present the vague and unconscious assumptions underlying the idea, which are operative in our lives and guide our practical actions e human rights relating to it. It is essential that we discover these assumptions lying behind the conception if we do not want to be driven Nan rights that blindly in our effort to implement the idea in the social and political life. In short, it is the expository effort of philosophy -anguished from that would clarify the presuppositions of human rights conception, and thereby it would deepen our understanding of its truth.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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Hindu (1743)
Philosophers (2389)
Aesthetics (332)
Comparative (70)
Dictionary (12)
Ethics (40)
Language (372)
Logic (72)
Mimamsa (56)
Nyaya (138)
Psychology (406)
Samkhya (62)
Shaivism (58)
Shankaracharya (240)
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