Da li su ljudska prava zapadni izum?
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Da li su ljudska prava zapadni izum?
Joas Hans
Summary
Hans Joas: Are human rights a Western invention?
Why have slavery, torture, colonialism been tolerated and justified for so long in European history, political thought, and even in theology? Although sporadic voices of resistance to all these types of injustice could always be heard, they were quickly overpowered and had no impact until recently. According to Hans Joas, a German sociologist and lecturer at the Theological Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin, there is no justification for this and Western culture, when it comes to respecting human rights and personal dignity, has no reason for triumphalism. The protection of human rights in Western countries is a very young achievement, which was not reached according to some necessary teleological pattern. Torture as a method, it is true, was publicly abolished in the 19th century in most Western countries, but this is not true for American slaves or for subjects in French and English colonies, who were exposed to brutal torture and various inhumane practices in the 50s of the 20th century, and it is clear that it was in Guantanamo and that it was often justified even in our time.
In this short work that is full of valuable information about the history of slavery and the fight for the legal protection of human rights, Hans Joas reminds that the belief in the universal dignity of man does not appear only in the West, that the process of "sacralizing the personality" is still uncertain and fragile, and that when it comes to human rights and their history in Europe and America there are gross simplifications, with the aim of asserting cultural superiority and discouraging self-criticism.
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