HR100 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Natural Law, Utilitarianism, United Nations
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
HR100
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Friday, January 5th, 2018
HR 100
Dr. Robinson
Lecture 1: Human Rights 1
●What does it mean to say that the process of defining human rights is inherently political?
Human Rights
●UN World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna Conference) (1993)
○HR are universal
○HR apply everywhere on earth to all human beings
○Cultural, religious and political differences need to be taken into account when
determining human rights
●“The process of defining human rights is political.”
○The process is inherently political
○Political=polis (greek root word)
○Polis= community
○Matters that are political include making rules for the community
○Matter of debate, discussion, and decision
●What if human rights were not political?
○They would be set and nature
○Using reason we would just know what human rights entails
●Tautology
○When you try to define a term in a definition
●Simple Definition: the rights one has because one is human
○Which rights though?
○What does it mean to be human?
■Homospemiens
○Age/ maturity differences?
○Why humans matter at all?
○Slave, caste, class, racially divided societies, etc.
●Barbarians” are not considered human??
○According to philosophers they should be considered more human than most
because humans are naturally selfish and violent
○According to the bible, and many religions, humans are born into sin
●Understanding of their experience of humanity?
○Liberal democratic
■To be human who experiences humanity is to be independent and self
sufficient
○Communitarian
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
■To understand what it means to be human is to understand that humans are
apart of a community and to be apart of a community
●Who qualifies as human (Descriptive)
●Is there any moral significance to being human (Normative)
●Right
○That to which one is morally or legally entitled
○A valid claim that some other has a duty to do or refrain from doing
○Legal entitlement means an entitlement written into a law
○Moral entitlement means an right to claims on should have be is not guaranteed
under law
News
●Alberta Holocaust denier reportedly arrested in Germany
Philosophical Justifications of HR
●Summary
○There have been and are competing justifications of HR
○Different people who support HR likely support them for different reasons
○But, each justification has important implications for:
■Appeal of HR
■Content of HR
■Introduction of ‘new’ HR
●No universally accepted HR
○Religious justifications
■Higher being determines the difference between right and wrong
●Secular Natural Rights/ Law
●Utilitarianism
○Consequentialist morality
○The law we choose should create the greatest good for the greatest number
●Positivism
○Authority stems from the state
○Positive Law
■Law created by human beings
○Natural Law
■Law discovered by human beings
●What does it mean to say that the process of defining human rights is inherently political?
○It means to agree or disagree with what human rights is
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Un world conference on human rights (vienna conference) (1993) Hr apply everywhere on earth to all human beings. Cultural, religious and political differences need to be taken into account when determining human rights. The process of defining human rights is political. Matters that are political include making rules for the community. Using reason we would just know what human rights entails. When you try to define a term in a definition. Simple definition: the rights one has because one is human. Slave, caste, class, racially divided societies, etc. According to philosophers they should be considered more human than most because humans are naturally selfish and violent. According to the bible, and many religions, humans are born into sin. To be human who experiences humanity is to be independent and self sufficient. To understand what it means to be human is to understand that humans are apart of a community and to be apart of a community.
