In 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which declared that every human being, without “distinction of any kind,” possesses a set of morally authoritative rights and fundamental freedoms that ought to be socially guaranteed. Since that time, human rights have arguably become the cross-cultural moral concept and evaluative tool to measure the performance—and even legitimacy—of domestic regimes. Yet questions remain that challenge their universal validity and theoretical bases.

Some theorists are ”maximalist” in their insistence that human rights must be grounded religiously, while an opposing camp attempts to justify these rights in “minimalist” fashion without any necessary recourse to religion, metaphysics, or essentialism. In Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World, Grace Kao critically examines the strengths and weaknesses of these contending interpretations while also exploring the political liberalism of John Rawls and the Capability Approach as proposed by economist Amartya Sen and philosopher Martha Nussbaum.

By retrieving insights from a variety of approaches, Kao defends an account of human rights that straddles the minimalist–maximalist divide, one that links human rights to a conception of our common humanity and to the notion that ethical realism gives the most satisfying account of our commitment to the equal moral worth of all human beings.

Grace Y. Kao is an associate professor of ethics at Claremont School of Theology and an associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University.

"Clearly written, rigorously argued, and thoroughly researched Grounding Human Rights is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary discussions of human rights. Grace Kao has given us a philosophically sophisticated yet truly accessible book, a rare and valuable contribution."

Introduction

1. Prolegomena to Any Philosophical Defense of Human RightsCultural RelativismEthnocentrism

2. The Maximalist Challenge to Human Rights JustificationMaximalist Approaches in Human Rights Declarations and DocumentsWhy Human Rights Needs Religion: A Sampling of Four Theoretical AccountsA Preliminary Assessment of the Maximalist ChallengeRising to the Maximalist Challenge

3. An Enforcement-Centered Approach to Human Rights, With Special Reference to John RawlsA Primer on Rawls's Conception of Global JusticeHuman Rights in the Law of Peoples Compared to International Human Rights LawRawlsian Human Rights: An AssessmentConclusion

4. Consensus-Based Approaches to Human RightsObtaining a Cross-Cultural Consensus on Human RightsOption 1: Consensus-Producing New Universal Human Rights StandardsOption 2: Consensus-Encouraging Plural Foundations for Human RightsBeyond Shared Norms: returning to the Original Sources of Inspiration

5. The Capability Approach to Human RightsWhat Is the Capability Approach? A PrimerComparing the Capability Approach to the Human Rights FrameworkJustifying Human Capabilities and Human RightsEnhancing Human Rights through the Framework of CapabilitiesRevisiting the Question of Justification

6. Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist WorldAssessing and Retrieving Minimalist Strategies of JustificationAssessing and Retrieving Maximalist Approaches to JustificationGrounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World by Straddling the Minimalist-Maximalist DivideConclusion

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