final class er 11, spring 2012. a long way tale of two sparks
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Final Class
ER 11, Spring 2012
![Page 2: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
A long way
![Page 3: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
![Page 4: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Tale of Two Sparks
![Page 5: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
UDHR: A Historical Accomplishment
![Page 6: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
The way it once was
![Page 7: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
And a little later
![Page 8: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Encounters
![Page 9: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Encounters
![Page 10: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
The way we live now
![Page 11: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
We have irreversibly encountered each other
![Page 12: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
“Age of Discovery”
![Page 13: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Colonialism
![Page 14: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
World Wars
![Page 15: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Paris 1919
![Page 16: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
We have irreversibly encountered each other
![Page 17: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
![Page 18: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
![Page 19: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Anti-Slavery Campaign
![Page 20: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Labor Movement
![Page 21: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Red Cross (Solferino, 1859)
![Page 22: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Women’s Emancipation
• Emmeline
Pankhurst
![Page 23: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
San Francisco, June 1945
![Page 24: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Dec. 10, 1948
![Page 25: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Dec. 10, 1948
![Page 26: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Dec. 10, 1948
![Page 27: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
![Page 28: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
![Page 29: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Dec. 10, 1948
![Page 30: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Inspiration • Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
![Page 31: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Inspiration • Now, Therefore THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
![Page 32: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Philosophical Inquiry
Human rights = moral rights
Why would people have them?
How could there be a universal language of value?
![Page 33: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Intellectual support required
![Page 34: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Philosophizing – your judgment required
“Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] "Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is the motto of enlightenment.”
Kant, What is Enlightenment?
![Page 35: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Philosophizing – slowing down
“Philosophy is thinking in slow motion. It breaks down, describes and assesses moves we ordinarily make at great speed” (John Campbell)
Here: think carefully about what human rights are, why people would have them
required by intellectual honesty, and to make them intellectually secure
![Page 36: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Philosophizing – minimizing bullshit
![Page 37: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Philosophizing – minimizing bullshit
• “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.”
• “[The bullshitter] is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. (…) He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”
![Page 38: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Philosophizing – minimizing bullshit
• “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.”
• “[The bullshitter] is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. (…) He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”
![Page 39: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Skeptics, Challengers
![Page 40: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Skeptics, Challengers
![Page 41: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
Skeptics, Challengers
![Page 42: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Three strategies
• Lockean natural rights: untrue to facts of nature not to be moral
• Outside of theological framework, hard to make sense of claim that we find morality “in nature,” outside of ourselves
![Page 43: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Three strategies
• Kantian self-consistency: irrational not to be moral – leads to a contradiction in the mind
• Too high a standard for arguments to derive human rights: could not be met
![Page 44: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
Three strategies
• Griffin: unreasonable not to be moral, and human rights are among the moral demands it would be unreasonable to reject – still a mistake to be immoral
• answer presented in lecture
![Page 45: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
Also: Rorty
• Rorty: not focusing on rational argument, but on education: an education towards sympathy, progress in sentiments
• Rightly stresses importance of education
But rational inquiry is still needed
![Page 46: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
Answer presented in lecture
• Griffin: human rights as protections of distinctively human life
• Valuing happens within context of shared human life – valuing is a social/human activity
• prudent person values things in a way that appeals to what is generally valuable in terms of human interests
• Perception model: “valuing occurs before shared form of life; values emerge for all of before this background; the prudent person acts accordingly; moreover, there are no credible intellectual resources to privilege some fundamentally over others.”
![Page 47: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
Too complicated?
• Why expect that it would not be?
• Nobody expects molecular biology to be straightforward!
![Page 48: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
![Page 49: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
Answer strong enough? Torture • There may well be cases of
justified torture, but if so, these would (a) be extreme cases that (b) do not lend themselves to regulation
• Can support a human right against being tortured, but not because there is an absolute right never to be so treated
• Kantian approach would take us to absolute moral right against torture, but not Griffin
![Page 50: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/50.jpg)
Still room for notion of dignity • “We human beings have a
conception of ourselves and of our past and future. We reflect and assess. We form pictures of what a good life would be – often, it is true, only on a small scale, but occasionally also on a large scale. And we try to realize these pictures. This is what we mean by a distinctively human existence (…) And we value our status as human beings especially highly, even more highly than even our happiness. This status centers on our being agents – deliberating, assessing, choosing, and acting to make what we see as a good life for ourselves.” (p 32)
• Dignity – ability to lead a distinctively human existence
• Human rights are there to protect it
![Page 51: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/51.jpg)
All of UDHR?
![Page 52: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
Skeptics, Challengers
![Page 53: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
Universal Declaration
![Page 54: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/54.jpg)
All of the Universal Declaration?
![Page 55: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
More Skepticism: Relativism
• thesis that fundamental values and ethical beliefs are culture-bound
• no right and wrong, but merely a “right for” and “wrong for”
![Page 56: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
Two responses
• Response I: global moral engagement is inevitable
• Response II: Moral engagement across cultures often possible
![Page 57: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
Question of appropriate intervention
![Page 58: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
A Tale of two sparks
![Page 59: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
A Tale of two sparks
![Page 60: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/60.jpg)
Remember:
• Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
![Page 61: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/61.jpg)
Making the world a better place is the responsibility of the privileged
![Page 62: Final Class ER 11, Spring 2012. A long way Tale of Two Sparks](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022033105/56649cc05503460f94986957/html5/thumbnails/62.jpg)
Making the world a better place is your responsibility