Respect vs solidarity: Liberal and communitarian strategies of human rights justification

Abstract

Liberal and Communitarian strategies of human rights justification are investigated in the article as alternative and rooted from different ontological presuppositions. While liberalism stands on the position of “unencumbered subject”, which has priority concerning his aims (as individual or collective imposed), Communitarianism stands on the position of “embodied subject”, which is always included in social and cultural meaningful context of community. Hence Liberalism considers human rights from universal morality prospects of respect toward each person regardless of cultural and social identity, while Communitarianism explains human rights mostly in terms of civil rights and treats patriotic collective solidarity as a condition of respect. The authors raise the question about horizon of understanding human rights, common for liberalism and communitarianism. Specific morals of law, which presuppose priority of rights toward obligations and derive from understanding of different kind of threats in common human being is considered as such horizon.