Truth, Politics, and Universal Human Rights [Hardcover]

This book uses the concept of universal human rights to explore the relationship between the individual, society, and truth. To answer the question of how we say something universally true about human beings while lacking the philosophical means to do so, the author explores the changing relationship between truth and politics from Plato to Locke.Introduction PART I: UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF MORAL DISCOURSE The History of Human Rights in International Law The Relativism of Universality Human Rights as Moral Principles PART II: SOUL KEEPING AND STATE BUILDING: PRINCIPLES AND POLITICS FROM PLATO TO MACHIAVELLI Natural Right: The Philosophic Quest for the First Things in Plato and Aristotle The Philosophic First Things in the Light of Christianity Machiavelli and the Low Road to Modernity PART III: THE DECLINE OF TRUTH AND THE RISE OF RIGHTS IN THE THOUGHT OF GROTIUS AND LOCKE The Grotian Answer to the Machiavellian Challenge Locke's Natural Law: The Answer to Grotius's Prayer PART IV: BEING AND GOODNESS: THE ALPHA AND OMEGA OF HUMAN RIGHTS Dignity in the Breach: The Human Being and the Concentration Camp Being and Goodness: The Essence of Life and Law in the Philosophy of St. Thomas The Logical Impossibility of Abortion as a Human Right Conclusion

As the number of 'human rights' multiplies, the differences between a right, a desire, and a felt need become ever more blurred. This important book helps to clear the mind of cant and confusion, displaying a more firm foundation for our indispensable concern for human rights. - (The Rev.) Richard John Neuhaus, Editor-in-Chief of First Things Learnedly, but also with grace and wit, Janet Holl Madigan shows why careful attention to the philosophical tradition reveals that any claim to human rights must be grounded in unequivocal respect for life and liberty.

- Charles E. Butterworth, University of Maryland

JANET HOLL MADIGAN received her PhD in Political Philosol#