Human Rights and Human Dignity

As a reaction to totalitarian crimes and World War II, a revolutionary vision of world politics gained ground soon after 1945: that of universal human rights. This idea of international law originates is based on the thought experiment of a democratic reestablishment of political power relations that must not turn into arbitrary rule or inhumane discrimination. This revolutionary project remained triumphant for a long time, 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 unabatedly urgent legacy, Arnd Pollmann presents a comprehensive philosophical interpretation and explanation of the relationship between human rights and human dignity.

»A lot is to be gained from the fact ... that [Pollmann] is not content with the philosophical validity of human rights, but decidedly does not lose sight of their factual validity either.« Amnesty Journal

»Pollmann, who is a leading author in the debate on human dignity and human rights in Germany, summarises in this book many of the ideas he has developed in earlier works in a structurally impressive way, while also offering new lines of thought to connoisseurs of his theory. Human Rights and Human Dignity turns out to be a very accessible and at the same time sophisticated, extremely successful project.« Bastian Klug, Philosophisches Jahrbuch

»Arnd Pollmann uncovers the revolutionary roots of human rights and shows why they are still worth fighting for.« Simone Miller, Deutschlandfunk Kultur