What are Human Rights?

The seminar explores the political theory of international human rights. We will ask some philosophical questions about these rights. For example: Are human rights really a kind of right? How are human rights related to the "natural rights" of the Western political tradition? What is the moral basis of human rights? Are human rights best understood as points of agreement among the world's moral cultures? How should we decide which rights are properly considered human rights? We will try to answer these questions through critical discussions of contributions to the philosophical literature about human rights of the last few decades.