Chapter 2: The most fundamental question: What justification, if any?
Category:
Chapter
Published:
16 May 2023
Page Range:
19–33
Collection:
Law 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035306275.00008
Keywords:
Human rights; moral rights; equal protection; right of privacy; legal theory; moral freedom
Open access

The most fundamental question we can ask, in interrogating the morality of human rights, is this: What reason or reasons do we have, if any, to accept, rather than reject, the morality of human rights - to live our lives, and to do what we reasonably can to get our governments to conduct their affairs, in accord with the morality of human rights? My focus in this chapter is on secular (nonreligious) responses to that question. I explain why the two most common secular responses - the “natural law” response and the “human dignity” response - are inadequate. I then offer my own response: the “agapaistic” response.

Cover Interrogating the Morality of Human Rights
Interrogating the Morality of Human Rights
Monograph Book
Published:
16 May 2023
Print ISBN:
9781035306268
eISBN:
9781035306275
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035306275
Pages:
172
Collection:
Law 2023
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