Human rights, justification, and Christian ethics

Per Sundman

Human rights language is often used as a universal benchmark for moral criticism. However, its philosophical basis has been seriously questioned. The purpose of this study is to investigate the contributions of Christian ethics (1) to the reconstruction of a plausible conception of a human right and (2) to the elaboration of a satisfying justification of human rights. Three different Christian ethical models of human rights are set forth and evaluated. The evaluations are gradually put to use in the argumentation toward the author's own "Constructivist" model for understanding and justifying human rights. It is argued that even if it is problematic to convince every rational person about the rightness of respecting human rights, most rational persons approve of the characteristic features of their ideal, namely a drive toward inclusivity as opposed to various forms of exclusivity.

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