Opacity of “Human Rights”

Abstract

Human rights are of the basis for the local and international laws and bestow legitimacy on states. Furthermore, a vast number of theories in the field of humanities are evaluated based on their approaches to human rights. Despite widespread assumption that “human rights” is a clear and commonly accepted concept, in this article I show the opacity of human rights both conceptually and extensionally. Also, I explain that, as long as “human rights” is not clarified, the whole discussions on human rights in the fields of law, economics, politics and so on will be in vain, and the clarification of “human rights” is possible only under philosophical examination of this notion. Human rights are of the basis for the local and international laws and bestow legitimacy on states. Furthermore, a vast number of theories in the field of humanities are evaluated based on their approaches to human rights. Despite widespread assumption that “human rights” is a clear and commonly accepted concept, in this article I show the opacity of human rights both conceptually and extensionally.

Keywords

• human rights
• the concept of human rights
• conceptual ambiguities of human rights
• the universal declaration of human rights
• philosophical criticism