Abstract
This paper analyses the relatively neglected topic of hierarchy in the philosophical foundation of human rights. It develops a transcendental-discursive approach. This approach develops the idea that all human rights could be derived from a small set of fundamental rights that are interconnected and that incorporate all ulterior possible specific rights. This set is then applied to an analysis of human rights as they have been formulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The claim is that this prior set of transcendental rights is discursively implied whenever we talk about human rights. Thinking about the hierarchy of rights pragmatically means thinking about prioritising their implementation. Some consequences for practical philosophy and politics concerning the role of states, enterprises and world citizenship are then discussed.
Highlights
The problem of the hierarchy of rights is a central element in the traditional philosophy of right
I think this becomes clear if we take the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as an example and reduce its articles to a set of fundamental rights that are transcendental in the sense of constituting an a priori domain that enables the discursive possibility of the specific rights deployed in the Declaration
I have shown that a transcendental approach to rights opens a way to understanding the hierarchy that is inherent in human rights
Summary
The problem of the hierarchy of rights is a central element in the traditional philosophy of right. Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1796) was one of the first who, following Immanuel Kant’s moral theory, started a systematic study based on transcendental philosophy (Fichte 1971, 17–23, 92–110). Kant’s own system of right appeared a year later (1797), and after some decades, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel combined a hierarchical system of right with a comprehensive social theory and social history.. Kant’s own system of right appeared a year later (1797), and after some decades, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel combined a hierarchical system of right with a comprehensive social theory and social history. Since
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