Isadora Mosch considers why we laugh at things that aren’t funny. “Why can’t Helen Keller drive?Because she’s a woman.” I admit that laughing out loud when I heard this joke about the famous blind and deaf writer was not my finest moment – as a woman or as a decent human being. As soon as …
Mordechai Gordon takes ideas about not taking ourselves too seriously seriously. To date, philosophers have concentrated much more on trying to account for what makes us laugh at others than on why we laugh at ourselves. Indeed, attempts to explain the phenomenon of laughing at others have been around for a long time, at least …
Patrícia Fernandes looks at Rorty’s idea for promoting human rights. For his 1993 Oxford Amnesty Lecture, the American philosopher Richard Rorty presented a paper that would become one of his most popular texts: ‘Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality’. In it he argued for the following ideas: 1) We cannot justify human rights; 2) Reason is …
Hamid Andishan tells us how Sartre, a philosopher of freedom, had problems with the politics of the land of liberté, and how this affected his view of human rights. Have you ever heard of someone loving and hating something at the same time? It can lead to madness, or at least, to profound anguish. The …
Preamble Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of …
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Read More »
Ian Fishback argues that torture should never be allowed in practice. At one time international recognition of a right against torture was considered one of the best, if not the singularly best, triumphs of the human rights regime. However, since the US implemented its enhanced interrogation program in the wake of the terrorist attacks of …
The Absolute In-Practice Human Right Against Torture Read More »
Tim Dare considers how far human rights claims can stretch. Human rights are, of course, rights of a certain kind, and rights are specific kinds of moral, political or legal claims. Consider the following cases. Suppose I lose my wallet and won’t be able to get home unless I come up with $5.00 for the …
Vittorio Bufacchi & Xiao Ouyang discuss some philosophical & linguistic difficulties. China has long been a soft target for Western human rights activists. Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, between 1966 and 1976, was attacked at the time and is still demonized today for the innumerable violations of fundamental human rights that then occurred. In 1989 the …
Jesse Tomalty considers what human rights are and how they’re justified. A few months ago there was a spate of headlines announcing that the UN had made internet access a human right. It turns out that this claim was rather misleading. What the UN did was pass a resolution emphasizing the importance of internet access …
Ray Tallis peers into the future, without fear. “Tereza is staring at herself in the mirror. She wonders what would happen if her nose were to grow a millimetre longer each day. How much time would it take for her face to become unrecognizable? And if her face no longer looked like Tereza, would Tereza …