Article(print)2000

(Im)possible Universalism: Reading Human Rights in World Politics

In: Review of international studies: RIS, Volume 26, Issue 4, p. 663-674

Pin-Fat, Veronique

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Abstract

A review essay on books by (1) Tony Evans (Ed), Human Rights Fifty Years On: A Reappraisal (Manchester: Manchester U Press, 1998); (2) Robin Holt, Wittgenstein, Politics and Human Rights (London: LSE/Routledge, 1997); & (3) Peter Van Ness (Ed), Debating Human Rights: Critical Essays from the United States and Asia (London: Routledge, 1999) explores the questions produced regarding the linkage or lack thereof between theory & practice in international relations, especially in the case of studies of universal human rights in world politics, by presenting an alternative interpretation of universalism as (im)possible. How these questions & their supposed solutions are all predicated upon & caused by accepting a strict separation of theory & practice is shown. Further, reading universality as a (im)possible dynamic offers a framework within which the understanding of universalism as differentiated can be refined. Therefore, this will allow the distinction between philosophical universalism & global universalism. In addition, it is argued that the separation of theory & practice cannot be sustained, & the human price of excluding the political from universal human rights leaves us with an impoverished notion of humanity. 10 References. E. Sanchez

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