Justification or Ontology? On why Approaching the Concept of Human Rights Philosophically is still Useful

Vol.29,No.4(2021)

Pavel Dufek

https://doi.org/10.5817/CPVP2021-4-6

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Abstract
This is a critical response to Marek Káčer’s article Why Should we Bother with the Question of Existence of Human Rights? (this journal, No. 4/2020). I argue that the author’s attempt to set philosophical controversies about the concept of human rights aside will encounter the same set of problems that have occupied the approaches he wishes to supersede with his pragmatic turn. Related, I do not find convincing the justificatory bedding of his pragmatism in the supposed global overlapping consensus on the practice of human rights. By explaining the incompleteness of legal-centralistic view of human rights and highlighting the social-moral prerequisites of legal rules, I also cast doubt over the claim that “we” as humanity have already “decided” for human rights, which supposedly renders any deeper justification unnecessary.


Keywords:
Human Rights; Pragmatism; Overlapping Consensus; Normative Justification; Legal Centralism.

Pages:
813–823
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