Human rights and human nature

✍ Scribed by Marion Albers, Thomas Hoffmann, Jörn Reinhardt (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 273
• Series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice 35
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book explores both the possibilities and limits of arguments from human nature in the context of human rights. Can the concept of human nature provide a basis for understanding fundamental rights? Is it plausible to justify the claim to universal validity of human rights by reference to human nature? Or does the idea of human rights in its modern, post-1945 manifestation go, in essence, beyond human nature? The essays in this volume introduce naturalistic positions and their concomitant critiques. They address the role that human nature both actually does and potentially may play in forming a foundation for and acting as an exemplification of fundamental rights. Beyond that, they give attention to the challenges caused by Life Sciences. Human nature itself is subject to transformation and transgression in an unprecedented manner. The essays reflect on issues such as reproduction, species manipulation, corporeal autonomy and enhancement. Contributors are jurists, philosophers and political scientists from Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Poland and Japan.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-vi
Human Rights and Human Nature: Introduction....Pages 1-7
Front Matter....Pages 9-9
The Double Foundation of Human Rights in Human Nature....Pages 11-22
Human Rights and Human Animals....Pages 23-42
Human Rights, Human Dignity, and the Human Life Form....Pages 43-56
Rethinking Human Nature as a Basis for Human Rights....Pages 57-77
The Relationship Between Human Nature and Human Rights. The Confucian Example....Pages 79-93
The Natural Faculty of Empathy as a Basis for Human Rights....Pages 95-108
Human Rights and Basic Needs....Pages 109-119
Human Rights Beyond Naturalism....Pages 121-136
Human Rights, Human Nature, and the Feasibility Issue....Pages 137-158
Front Matter....Pages 159-159
How to Protect “Human Nature” – By Human Dignity, Human Rights or with “Species-Ethics” Argumentations?....Pages 161-172
Species, Potentiality and Their Manipulation....Pages 173-183
Collection of Human Tissue Samples in Biobanks: Challenges to Human Rights and Human Nature....Pages 185-196
The Body, the Law, and the Market: Public Policy Implications in a Liberal State....Pages 197-215
Should Society Guarantee Individuals the Right to Maintain “Normal Functioning”?: A Genetic Minimalist Approach in a Globalized World....Pages 217-234
Enhancement, Human Nature, and Human Rights....Pages 235-266
Back Matter....Pages 267-274

✦ Subjects

Theories of Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal History; Philosophy of Law; Anthropology; Behavioural Sciences