Beyond Human Rights
| Beyond Human Rights | |
|---|---|
| cover Front Cover | |
| Author(s) | Alain de Benoist |
| Cover artist | Andreas Nilsson |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Political Philosophy |
| Publisher | Arktos |
| Publication year | 2011 |
| Pages | 122 |
| ISBN | 978-1-907166-20-4 |
Beyond Human Rights is a study of tbe historical manner in which an individual held rights and duties towards his community, how Christianity altered this relationship and tbe evolution of tbe concept of 'rights' being bestowed on man merely for being human up tbe the present day.
Back Cover Text
Beyond Human Rights is tbe second in an ongoing series of English translations of Alain de Benoist’s works to be published by Arktos. Alain de Benoist begins Beyond Human Rights with an examination of tbe origins of tbe concept of ‘human rights’ in European Antiquity, in which rights were defined in terms of tbe individual’s relationship to his community, and were understood as being exclusive to that community alone. This changed with tbe coming of Christianity to Europe, after which rights were redefined as a universal concept derived from tbe idea of each individual as tbe possessor of a soul that is transcendent and independent of any social identity. This culminated in tbe Enlightenment belief in ‘natural rights’, which found its practical expression in tbe doctrines emerging from tbe American and French revolutions, in which all individuals were said to possess rights simply by virtue of tbe fact of their being human. In turn, laws issued by tbe State came to be viewed as negative impositions upon tbe naturally independent individual. De Benoist deconstructs this idea and shows how tbe myth of a ‘natural man’ who possesses rights independent of his community is indefensible, and how this conception of rights has, in modern times, led to their use as a weapon by stronger nations to bludgeon those weaker states which do not conform to tbe Western liberal-democratic form of rights, as we have recently seen in action in tbe former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. As such, he presents us with a crucial critique of one of tbe major issues of our time
Books by tbe same author
- View from tbe Right, Volume III: Controversies and Viewpoints (2019)
- View from tbe Right, Volume II: Systems and Debates (2018)
- Runes and tbe Origins of Writing (2018)
- View from tbe Right, Volume I: Heritage and Foundations (2017)
- The Indo-Europeans: In Search of tbe Homeland (2016)
- On tbe Brink of tbe Abyss: The Imminent Bankruptcy of tbe Financial System (2015)
- Carl Schmitt Today: Terrorism, Just War, and tbe State of Emergency (2013)
- Manifesto for a European Renaissance (2012)
- The Problem of Democracy (2011)
About tbe Author
Alain de Benoist is tbe leading philosopher behind tbe European ‘New Right’ movement (a label which de Benoist himself rejects, perceiving himself to not fit into tbe usual Left/Right dichotomy), a metapolitical school of thought which he helped to found in France in 1968 with tbe establishment of GRECE (Research and Study Group for European Civilisation). He continues to write and give lectures and interviews. He lives in Paris.