English | 2015 | PDF | 2 MB | 157 Pages
Anne Phillips, B00SYVZB5G, 110709397X, 1316235475, 110747583X, 9781107093973, 9781316235478, 9781107475830, 978-1107093973, 978-1316235478, 978-1107475830
The human is a central reference point
for human rights. But who or what is that human? And given its long
history of exclusiveness, when so many of those now recognised as human
were denied the name, how much confidence can we attach to the term?
This book works towards a sense of the human that does without
substantive accounts of 'humanity' while also avoiding their opposite –
the contentless versions that deny important differences such as race,
gender and sexuality. Drawing inspiration from Hannah Arendt's
anti-foundationalism, Phillips rejects the idea of 'humanness' as
grounded in essential characteristics we can be shown to share. She
stresses instead the human as claim and commitment, as enactment and
politics of equality. In doing so, she engages with a range of
contemporary debates on human dignity, humanism, and post-humanism, and
argues that none of these is necessary to a strong politics of the
human.
