| Wittgenstein, Politics and Human Rights Contributor(s): Holt, Robin (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0415154383 ISBN-13: 9780415154383 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $161.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 1997 Annotation: In this highly original work, Robin Holt skillfully reveals the implications that Wittgenstein's ideas on language may have for contemporary politics of human rights and political theory. Using Wittgenstein's late philosophy, Holt sees a shift in ontological aspect from the dominant view of the self as a rational core--individual and alone--to the self as a rational core. This perspective shows that the practices of grammar give rise to a self which is less separate entity than one which responds to the flow of circumstances. He reveals the human rights claimant as far less a lone reasoner than a grammatical player, and that human rights do not express universal ethical truths. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | History & Surveys - Modern - Political Science | Civil Rights |
| Dewey: 323.01 |
| LCCN: 96039528 |
| Series: LSE/Routledge |
| Physical Information: 0.77" H x 5.78" W x 8.72" (0.74 lbs) 182 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Do human rights make sense? They have been central to post-war political life, and our picture of moral self. But this is being eroded, Holt argues, and with it the viability of human rights discourse. The pre-social individual and its mental armoury is being challenged by an increasing awareness of genealogical forces in which the self is less a lone claimant than an exponent or rebel. Using Wittgenstein's philosophy, this book considers the liberal position on human rights, along with the communitarian and pragmatic attacks, and challenges the intelligibility of each from the perspective of what it is to be a language user. Wittgenstein, Politics and Human Rights argues that moral relations are not dead; but that their life resides with the on-going relations of selves governed by universal principles. |