POLI 362 Lecture Notes - Nonviolence, Eye For An Eye
22 Dec 2012
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Taylor conditions of an unforced consensus on human rights. What would it mean to come to a genuine, unforced international consensus on human rights? . Answer: different groups, despite holding incompatible views on theology, would come to an agreement on certain norms that ought to govern human behaviour. The justification for these norms may be different, but the content would be the same. Even if non-western cultures may hold similar norms, they may express it differently. One can presumably find in all cultures condemnations of genocide, murder, torture, and slavery, as well as of, say, disappearances and the shooting of innocent demonstrators. Everywhere it is wrong to take human life, at least under certain circumstances and for certain categories of persons. However, to invoke the concept of rights that is, of your or my rights is different than to speak of what the right is, or what is the right thing in x circumstance.
