2008-09 Goutman Lecture: Allen Buchanan

The Egalitarianism of Human Rights

There is a dramatic upsurge in philosophical theorizing about human rights. Most philosophers now recognize that modern human rights are not the same as the natural rights of the Enlightenment, and some have emphasized that modern human rights are "more egalitarian" than natural rights. In this lecture, Allen Buchanan will:

1. analyze the senses in which modern human rights are egalitarian,
2. argue that the chief contemporary philosophical theories of human rights cannot accommodate the egalitarianism of modern human rights, and
3. articulate the different roles which appeals to equality can play in the justification of claims about the existence of modern human rights.

Refreshments will be served.