Menschenrechte und Menschenwürde

In reaction to the totalitarian crimes and the Second World War, a world-political revolutionary vision took hold soon after 1945: The United Nations committed itself to universal human rights, which should enable all people worldwide to live at least a life worthy of a human being. This idea of international law originates from the thought experiment of a democratic reestablishment of political power relations, which must not turn into arbitrary rule or inhumane discrimination. For a long time this revolutionary project was triumphant, but recently it has come under authoritarian pressure, and even in the academic debate relativistic or even derisive swansongs are increasingly being heard. To remind us of this historically fragile but unbrokenly urgent legacy, Arnd Pollmann presents a comprehensive philosophical interpretation and justification of the connection between human rights and human dignity.