Abstract
This paper examines some aspects of Axel Honneth’s normative theory, focusing on his theory of recognition, that can contribute to the renewal of human rights. To this end, it will start by making a few philosophical considerations about the justification and content of human rights, exploring the dialectic on the unity and diversity of human rights, in order to liaise the struggle for human rights and the struggle for recognition. It intends to move human rights away from the current inherent to Kantian philosophical thought, weakened by the decentralization of the European culture and conducted by 20th century postmodern reflections and by the critique of its categorical imperative as a pure duty of submission. It also examines the way to open space for a renewal of the discourse so as to enable it to confront delimited cultural and historical challenges. Other critical perspectives are included in this theoretical association, whether regarding the anti-utilitarian aspect, or the aspect of the gift paradigm, in order to contribute to the ethical renewal of human rights.
Highlights
Human rights result from the process of the formation of the modern world
The first individual, political and procedural rights that appear in history and which form the core of the declarations of the liberal revolution are not the result of a great rational reflection, but a response to a concrete situation existing in Europe and in the colonies of European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries
They were based on general ideas as they were being conceived, a consensus emerged on the initial catalogue of human rights
Summary
Human rights result from the process of the formation of the modern world. Their configuration is influenced by the general characteristics of the transition to modernity. The first individual, political and procedural rights that appear in history and which form the core of the declarations of the liberal revolution are not the result of a great rational reflection, but a response to a concrete situation existing in Europe and in the colonies of European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries They were based on general ideas as they were being conceived, a consensus emerged on the initial catalogue of human rights. For Comparato (2010: 72), this foundation can only be the "collective ethical conscience, the conviction, long and widely established in the community, that the dignity of the human condition requires respect for certain goods or values in any circumstance, even if not recognized in the state order, or in international normative documents" This collective ethical awareness expands and deepens throughout history. This constitutes a relevant theme for International Relations, the complex dialectic of universalism and relativism or the unity and diversity of human rights, which will be examined
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