The Theoretical and Social Conditions of Human Rights*

Year 2008, Volume: 40 Issue: 57, 215 - 224, 07.12.2011

Ahmet Türkbağ

Abstract

Human rights are the most famous political and legal concepts of our age. They seem a cornerstone of human being’s development and a criterion for the degree of civilization. Everybody -even crypto dissenters of them- champions human rights. From the radical right to the left almost all political understandings try to show their compatibility with them. But this dust cloud can not hide the crucial questions and the worries about human rights: what is the theoretical or ethical core (the sufficient explanation about which human being uniqueness and causes of having these rights) of human rights? And, in the postmodern era, what are or can be their social bases, namely the conditions which lead to comprise and support human rights norms? Which kind of social structure and relations give a rise to human rights norms? In this text I would like to give modest answers to the questions above. The Answers would be modest because I do not argue that they are the only answers can be given to such questions or they are completely true. But I strongly believe that the answers given below about the theoretical and social bases of human rights, define the conditions which envisage personally and socially a good condition for human being.

Keywords

Human Rights, Ethics, Law

The Theoretical and Social Conditions of Human Rights*

Abstract

Human rights are the most famous political and legal concepts of
our age. They seem a cornerstone of human being’s development and
a criterion for the degree of civilization. Everybody -even crypto dissenters of them- champions human rights. From the radical right to the
left almost all political understandings try to show their compatibility
with them. But this dust cloud can not hide the crucial questions and
the worries about human rights: what is the theoretical or ethical core
(the sufficient explanation about which human being uniqueness and
causes of having these rights) of human rights? And, in the postmodern
era, what are or can be their social bases, namely the conditions which
lead to comprise and support human rights norms? Which kind of social
structure and relations give a rise to human rights norms? In this text I
would like to give modest answers to the questions above. The Answers
would be modest because I do not argue that they are the only answers
can be given to such questions or they are completely true. But I strongly
believe that the answers given below about the theoretical and social
bases of human rights, define the conditions which envisage personally
and socially a good condition for human being.

Keywords

Human Rights, Ethics, Law, Globalization, Postmodernism, Sociology of Law.

References

• Bentham J., An Introduction to The Principles of Morals and Legis- lation, Glaucester: Dodo Press, 2008.
• Donnelly, Jack, “The Relative Universality of Human Rights”, Human Rights Quarterly 29 (May) 2007, pp.281-306.
• Freeman, Michael, Human Rights, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004.
• Gurvitch, Georges, Sociology of Law, London: Kegan Paul Co. Ltd., 1974.
• Kant, Immanuel, Groundwork of Metaphysic of Morals, Trans. H.J. Paton, New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964.
• Murphy, Jeffrie G., Jules L. Coleman, Philosophy of Law: An Introduc- tion to Jurisprudence, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990.