Human Dignity: Perspectives from a Critical Theory of Human Rights - Paperback

by Amos Nascimento (Editor), Matthias Bachmann (Editor)

Connecting three generations of critical theorists, this edited collection focuses on the mutual complementarity between the concept of "human dignity" and the theory and practice of human rights.

Human dignity has recently emerged as a controversial theme in the philosophy of human rights and has become the subject of a growing debate involving theological, political, juridical, moral, and biomedical perspectives. Previously, interpretations of this concept took for granted specific definitions of this term without accounting for the perspective offered by a "Critical Theory of Human Rights." This interdisciplinary perspective relies on a tradition that goes from Immanuel Kant to Jürgen Habermas, influences new generations, and sheds more light on how human dignity is used (and abused) in contemporary discourses. Based on this tradition, the contributors sustain an engaged discussion of the topic and address issues such as domination, colonialism, multiculturalism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism. Informed by different contexts, each author offers a unique contribution to distinctive aspects of the necessary internal correlation between human dignity and human rights.

This book will be of interest to students and researchers in human rights in Europe, North America, and Latin America and readers in the areas of political science, philosophy, sociology, law, and international relations.

Author Biography

Amos Nascimento is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington, Tacoma and Seattle, affiliated with Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, International Studies, and Germanics programs, and Principal Investigator of the Interdisciplinary Research Cluster on "Human Interactions and Normative Innovation."

Matthias Lutz-Bachmann is Professor of Philosophy, Principal Investigator of the Cluster of Excellence on "The Formation of Normative Orders," and Director of the Research Center for Humanities at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.