The Eric Voegelin Institute Series in Political Philosophy

Historical, Political, and Philosophical Perspectives

Bruce P. Frohnen, Kenneth L. Grasso, Bruce P. Frohnen, Kenneth L. Grasso

• Publisher: University of Missouri
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780826266521
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

As reports of genocide, terrorism, and political violence fill today's newscasts, more attention has been given to issues of human rights—but all too often the sound bites seem overly simplistic. Many Westerners presume that non-Western peoples yearn for democratic rights, while liberal values of toleration give way to xenophobia. This book shows that the identification of rights with contemporary liberal democracy is inaccurate and questions the assumptions of many politicians and scholars that rights are self-evident in all circumstances and will overcome any conflicts of thought or interest. Rethinking Rights offers a radical reconsideration of the origins, nature, and role of rights in public life, interweaving perspectives of leading scholars in history, political science, philosophy, and law to emphasize rights as a natural outgrowth of a social understanding of human nature and dignity. The authors argue that every person comes to consciousness in a historical and cultural milieu that must be taken into account in understanding human rights, and they describe the omnipresence of concrete, practical rights in their historical, political, and philosophical contexts. By rooting our understanding of rights in both history and the order of existence, they show that it is possible to understand rights as essential to our lives as social beings but also open to refinement within communities. An initial group of essays retraces the origins and historical development of rights in the West, assessing the influence of such thinkers as Locke, Burke, and the authors of the Declaration of Independence to clarify the experience of rights within the Western tradition. A second group addresses the need to rethink our understanding of the nature of existence if we are to understand rights and their place in any decent life, examining the ontological basis of rights, the influence of custom on rights, the social nature of the human person, and the importance of institutional rights. Steering a middle course between radical individualist and extreme egalitarian views, Rethinking Rights proposes a new philosophy of rights appropriate to today's world, showing that rights need to be rethought in a manner that brings them back into accord with human nature and experience so that they may again truly serve the human good. By engaging both the history of rights in the West and the multicultural challenge of rights in an international context, Rethinking Rights offers a provocative and coherent new argument to advance the field of rights studies.

Index

Abbott, Phillip, 203n90

Abelard, Peter, 67

Abortion, 104n52, 158

Abrams, Kathryn, 131n87

Acquired rights, 91, 97

Adair, Douglass, 100n44

Adam, 73

Adaptability of idea of rights, 181

Addis, Adeno, 25n67

Aegidius Romanus, 42n15

Africa: ethnic politics in sub-Saharan Africa, 12–16; genocide in, 2, 15; minority languages in, 13; one-nation model in, 14; Tutu in South Africa, 54; U.S. foreign policy on, 1

Agency of institutions, 215, 237–38

Alienable rights, 88, 91, 93, 95

Althusius, Johannes, 221–22n31

America: Articles of Confederation in, 100; business corporations in, 123–28, 129, 130; civil rights movement in, 166, 173; class action suits in, 168; conservative movement in, 172–73; foreign policy of, 1, 243; immigration issues in, 172–73; Locke’s influence in colonial America, 51–52, 53; municipal rights in, 119–23, 129, 130; rights dialect in, 102, 179–80, 212; sermons and political essays leading up to Revolution in, 96; social contract mode of thinking in founding era of, 83–85. See also Constitution, U.S.; Declaration of Independence; Jefferson, Thomas; Massachusetts Constitution (1780); Paine, Thomas

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 172

American Indians, 45, 46

American Political Writings during the Founding Era, 1760–1805, 83–84

American Revolution. See Declaration of Independence

Analogy, 148n30

Andreae, Johannes, 49

Anthropological relativism, 54

Antidiscrimination laws, 7–9

Aquinas, Thomas. See Thomas Aquinas, Saint

Areté, 160

Aristotle: on analogy, 148n30; on areté, 160; Bellarmine on, 68, 73, 74, 78; on energeia, 137; on ethé (custom), 160; on ethos tés politeias, 160; on evolution of the state, 232; Filmer on, 66, 66n28; on human nature, 73, 159–60; influence of, on Declaration of Independence, 82; on law, 159; Millar on, 63; political ph...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Rights in a Multicultural Age
• Historical Roots of Modern Rights: Before Locke and After
• Natural Rights and Social Contract in Burke and Bellarmine
• Natural Law, Natural Rights, and the Declaration of Independence
• Individual and Group Rights: Self-Government and Claims of Right in Historical Practice
• The Ontology of Rights
• The Historical and Communal Roots of Legal Rights and the Erosion of the State
• Reintegrating Rights: Catholicism, Social Ontology, and Contemporary Rights Discourse
• Toward a Social Pluralist Theory of Institutional Rights
• Epilogue: Toward an Integrative Vision
• Notes on the Contributors
• Index