Midterm Paper INR
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Week3NaturalLawandCosmopolitanismSPR2019.pptxWeek 3
Natural Law & Cosmopolitanism
INR 4075 Spring 2019
Natural Rights?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happines…” Thomas Jeffferson Dec of Ind 1776
Rights that have always existed.
By being human, we possess inalienable and immutable rights—regardless of the government, religion, or ethical system under which one lives.
Those who reject this concept (Rousseau, Bentham, Nietzsche, Mill, & Burke).
Drawing from Darwin, there is nothing natural about natural rights. There is a natural principle, however, The will to survive.
Natural Law
” The international recognition and protection of the rights of man is, in strict juridical logic, independent of any doctrine of natural law and natural rights.”
Natural law, at is base, can serve as a source of inspiration and sanction for men of goodwill.
Founders of contemporary International law (Vitoria, Grotius, Vattel, Wolff, and Puffendorf, drew upon concepts of natural law and Concerned themselves for the individual suggest again a conception of that law as not merely governing the mutual relations of states, but “as being above the legal order of sovereign states.”
Natural Law Cont’d—Challenges
Contesting Natural Law
“…It must be admitted that we can never prove the existence of things other than ourselves and our experiences. No logical absurdity results from the hypothesis that the world consists of myself and my thoughts and feelings and sensations, and that everything is mere fancy.” Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy (p. 10).
“ Right…is the child of law: from real laws come real rights; but from imaginary laws, from laws of nature, fancied and invented by poets, rhetoricians, and dealers in moral and intellectual poisons, come imaginary rights, a bastard brood of monsters.” (Bentham, Anarchical Fallacies).
Thinking about Natural Laws
How were these explored and implemented? 1946 UN committee tasked with developing fundamental human rights from the world’s diverse cultures.
Elaborate questionnaire was sent to statemen around the world.
Shared common assumptions about the nature of man and society.
Every persons, simply through virtue of being human, has inalienable rights, which others must attend to in a civilized society.
Beyond basics (food, shelter, and safety) Do economic (or other more eccentric) rights belong on a list of basic (or natural) human rights?
Is the International Bill of Rights Reserved for the liberal democratic Welfare State? Or do Ideals transcend sociocultural and political realities?
Critique of Cosmopolitanism—Calhoun (2001)
Cosmopolitanism?
Its vision is limited and overly optimistic.
How does citizenship contend with global capitalism and with non-cosmopolitan dimensions of globalization?
Reflects an elite perspective on the world--few academic theories escape this label.
Top financial institutions are exemplars of cosmopolitanism, though not of democracy.
Cosmopolitanism is deeply, and ironically attached to the nation state.
It has been intertwined with capitalism and Western Hegemony
Huntington (1993) –Cultural Relativism/Or Universally Mandated?
Predicted that culture, not ideology would account for major conflicts.
“Western ideas of individualism, liberalism, constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law, democracy, free markets, the separation of church and state, often have little resonance in Islamic, Confucian, Japanese, Hindu, Buddhist, or Orthodox cultures.
Drawing from the economist article, what are the contentions against the cultural relativist argument? For example, are the core documents exclusively Western?
“Jihad vs. McWorld.”
Classical Liberalism
Rand: Objectivism, an objective reality and objective morality, which can be discovered through the use of reason.
In order to survive, we need certain natural rights.
Teleology, they exist for a goal or purpose of human beings.
Nozick: Pursuing a rational self interest you would not impede upon the rights of others.
Deontologically: tell us what we should not do: Though shall not kill.
Gov violates our natural rights.
Capitalism is the only moral economic system because it is based on voluntary exchange not corrosion.
Defend capitalist acts between consenting adults: Military, Police and a Court. That is it.
Discussion
1. Do we live in a cosmopolitan era? In other words, can we achieve global citizenship? If so, what are some examples?
2. What is natural law? Does it have universal weight, or is it a concept solely applicable to Western elites?
3. Looking ahead, what is "cultural relativism?"
* Please respond to one of the questions. Thank you
