Playing by the rules: a theory of embodied human rights
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2012
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Abstract
We have paradigms of human rights-if freedom from institutionalized torture isn't one, we really have no idea what a human right is; and we know that human rights must be transcultural. What we don't know is how to ground them, how to specify them, how to identify them, and perhaps, how to balance them. The aim of this thesis is to begin to make some headway in regards to this grounding. Rights, duties and rules are distinct concepts that are intimately related to one another. The interrelations are so dense and intricate that it is easy to get them wrong. I evaluate and clarify the landscape of rights and develop a theoretical model that can be fruitfully applied to human rights concerns. Oftentimes, theories can have a shell that appears solid and polished but once pushed they disintegrate. There are two challenges that must be met by any rule-based theory of rights. The one theoretical conflict comes from those who think that rights are especially important concepts and thus cannot be reconceptualised in terms of duties. The other conflict is internal to a theory of this type. If rights are generated by duties and duties are the product of rules, then if there is no rule system it would seem impossible to account for rights and so rights are, at most, dependent on actual, contingent rule systems. A solid philosophical theory can sometimes collapse in the light of actual practice. Though the theory of embodied rights is embryonic, I think it useful to apply it to some extremely difficult problems. Doing so will allow us to see how the theory might work in practice and may be illuminating and may indicate areas where future work using this model can be done.
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Bibliography: p. 197-200
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Citation
Anderson, A. M. (2012). Playing by the rules: a theory of embodied human rights (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/4876