Myth of Universal Human Rights: Its Origin, History, and Explanation, Along with a More Humane Way

353 Pages·2014·2.59 MB·English

by  David N. Stamos

The Myth of Universal Human Rights
The Myth of Universal Human Rights
Its Origin, History, and Explanation, Along with a More
Humane Way
David N. Stamos
First published 2013 by Paradigm Publishers Published 2016 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 © 2013, Taylor & Francis.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stamos, David N., 1957–
The myth of universal human rights: its origin, history, and explanation, along
with a more humane way / David N. Stamos.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61205-242-7 (pbk: alk. paper)
1. Human rights. 2. Human rights—History. I. Title.
JC571.S7775 2012
323—dc23
2012024529
ISBN 13: 978-1-61205-241-0 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-61205-242-7 (pbk) Disigned and Typeset in Adobe Garamond by
Straight Creek Bookmakers.
for my students
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Problem, Audience, and Myth
Chapter Summaries
Conceptual Errors and Fallacies
Chapter 2: Evolution and Universal Human Rights
The Theological Foundation of Universal Human Rights
The Foundation in Human Nature
Taking Evolution Seriously
Chapter 3: Scholarly Defenses of Universal Human Rights
Alan White
Jack Donnelly
Charles Beitz
Jack Mahoney
Alan Gewirth
James Griffin
Martha Nussbaum
Chapter 4: Getting the History of Human Rights Wrong
The Bible
Confucius, Cyrus, and the Koran
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Romans
Medieval Scholars
Grotius, Hobbes, and Pufendorf
Chapter 5: Getting the History of Human Rights Right
The English Levellers
Locke
Jefferson to the Present
Chapter 6: Explaining the Human Rights Epidemic
Memetics
The Democracy Connection
Competing Explanations
Inference to the Best Explanation
Resistance to the Human Rights Epidemic
Evolutionary Psychology and Fairness
Chapter 7: Evolution, Ethics, and Justice
Bentham and MacIntyre
The Elephant and the Blind Indians
Naturalized Normative Ethics
Naturalia
Abortion, Affirmative Action, Same-Sex Marriage, the Treatment of Animals,
Waterboarding, and Political Regime Change
Conclusion
References
Index
About the Author
Acknowledgments
FIRST AND FOREMOST I WANT TO THANK JASON BARRY, my editor at Paradigm
Publishers, for his wisdom and guidance, which was quite extraordinary here.
The book was further improved by the perspicacity of Paradigm’s project editor,
Meredith Smith, and copyeditor, Antoinette Smith. Thanks are also due to the
anonymous referees (especially the one who suggested a change in the order of
the chapters) and to Ryan Chynces, who provided the spark that led away from a
paper in progress to the writing of this book in the first place. In addition, I want
to thank the individuals, organizations, and departments that provided me the
opportunity to lecture on this topic and receive feedback on some of its ideas,
specifically John Xu and Katie Kish of the Centre for Inquiry in Toronto, Mauro
Buccheri of Founders College at York University, Brian Garrett of the philosophy
department at McMaster University, and Andrew Sneddon of the philosophy
department at the University of Ottawa. There are others I want to thank who
contributed to this book in one way or another, many of them in terms of useful
feedback on one or more parts of the manuscript at various stages of its growth in
addition to my editor and the anonymous referees, namely, Robert Aunger,
Joshua Bachynski, Jason Buccheri, Michelle Devlin, Megi Duraku, Amir
Ghorashi, Sepideh (Sandra) Javadi, Matthew Kramer, Bernie Lightman, Tyler Lin,
Adam Riggio, Samira Sahihi, Tamara Schwarz, Gloria Segovia, Neven Sesardic,
John Shafer, Andrew Sharp, Marc Soscia, Julia Tourianski, Minwan (Mindy) Xu,
and Carol Yuen. Finally, I want to unconventionally acknowledge the many
nonhuman animals, both past and present, with whom I have had the pleasure to
share life—in their own way, due to the wonder of their being, they helped to
write the final chapter.
Preface
WHY A BOOK AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS? It sounds downright devilish. What kind of
person would want to write such a book? Does the author hate people? He must.
Maybe he’s a neo-Nazi and this is his own Mein Kampf. Surely this should not be
allowed in this day and age!
These sentiments, and others like them, are bound to be the response of many
to the very title of this book. And the answer to them all is simple and
straightforward: a person who puts truth and evidence above ideology, a person
who doesn’t hate people but doesn’t hate animals either, a person who believes
that truth and compassion are not mutually exclusive but are often perfectly
compatible, a person who greatly values life and believes that matters of ethics
and justice are too important to depend on myths.
Imagine ancient Greece at its peak, during the fifth century B.C., with the
public believing in Zeus and the rest of the ancient gods, and the few
philosophers who dared to question or challenge the existence of those gods
being persecuted for impiety and blasphemy. Today we look back at the situation
with puzzlement, including condescension. It’s so obvious to us that their gods
were a myth. But this is because we have the vantage point of history. To them
their gods were fully real. And not only were they fully real, but for all their
faults the gods were the foundation of ethics and justice, as enshrined in their
sacred stories, such as Homer’s Iliad. All in all it was as if they could feel the
truth pumping in their hearts, sometimes even as if the gods were speaking to
them directly.
Today we look back at these people as wrongheaded and even naive. But do
we really see that? Scroll ahead to the present day, to our modern world, and
suppose, just suppose for the moment, that the belief that humans have human
rights— moral claims and entitlements by virtue of being human, held equally,
innately, and inalienably by all—could be proven false, beyond a reasonable
doubt, that it could be proven that the dominant moral language of our world,
both nationally and internationally, is a modern myth. How would you feel?
What would you say? What would you do? Would you want a better way of