Table Of Content

JUSTIFYING ETHICS JUSTIFYING ETHICS Human Rights and Human Nature Jan Gorecki First published 1996 by Transaction Publishers Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 1996 by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 95-37865 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Górecki, Jan. Justifying ethics : human rights and human nature / Jan Górecki. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56000-236-0 (alk. paper) 1. Social ethics. 2. Human rights. I. Title. HM216.G574 1995 177—dc20 95-37865 CIP ISBN 13: 978-1-56000-236-9 (hbk) To Maria and Piotr Acknowledgments vii Acknowledgments Major parts of four articles of mine reprinted here appeared first in the following places and are reproduced by the kind permission of the original publishers: 1. “Human Rights: Explaining the Power of a Moral and Legal Idea,” 32. The American Journal of Jurisprudence 1987: 153–69. 2. “Human Nature and Justification of Human Rights”, 34. The Ameri- can Journal of Jurisprudence 1989: 43–60. 3. “Moral Norms: The Problem of Justification Reconsidered,” The Joumal of Value Inquiry 25: 349–58, 1991. © Kluwer Academic Publishers. 4. “Functionalism and Justification of Ethics” in Laws and Rights (Seminario Giuridico della Universita di Bologna, Misc. 10), Vincenzo Ferrari ed., Milano: Giuffrè 1991: 589–612. vii viii Justifying Ethics Contents Preface xi Introduction: The Power of Human Rights 1 1. The Problem of Justification 17 2. Human Nature 25 Universal Needs and Wants 26 Basic Ethical Inclinations: Universally Accepted Norms 28 The Function of Ethics 38 3. Beyond Human Nature 57 The Divine Will 57 Reason 59 Cognitivism: The Truth Value of Moral Judgments 62 On the Road to Skepticism? 67 4. Criticism: Human Nature as the Source of Hope 73 Human Genetic Program: StanisŸaw Ossowski’s Manichean Predilections 73 Individual Diversity: From Warsaw to Treblinka, 1942–43 75 Divergent Societies 79 5. Countercriticism: The Human Rights Struggle and the Need for Justification 85 The Difficulties of the Human Rights Struggle: Contagion 85 The Difficulties of the Human Rights Struggle: From Moral to Legal Change 92 6. Conclusion: The Importance of Justification 127 The Dilemma of Gustav Radbruch: Law, Positivism, and Genocide 128 The Importance of Justification 134 Bibliography 139 Index 149