Destructive of Cultural Community?

Abstract

The debate on the universality of human rights — how and why it is plausible in a world immersed in diverse cultures — has joined the ethical concerns (1) about the role and significance of culture in moral judgment making and norm-setting (as addressed in Part I) and (2) about the possibility of validating the universal value claims inherent in human rights (to be addressed in Part III). In this part of the book, I begin explicating the implications of the analyses and clarifications in Part I for this debate. Particularly, I spell out what they entail about the received ‘culture vs. human rights’ dichotomy, which has framed the debate for the most part. I argue that such a frame seriously distorted the complex relationships between diverse cultures and the universalist vision of human rights. I also undercut two of its supporting dichotomies, the ‘individualistic (civil—political) rights vs. collective (cultural-social- economic) rights’ dichotomy (in Chapter 4) and the ‘monist/intolerant human rights vs. tolerant cultural pluralism’ dichotomy (in Chapter 5).KeywordsHuman DignityCultural CommunitySocial CooperationBasic SecurityTraditional CommunityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.