Overview

The keywords of the Enlightenment-freedom, tolerance, rights, equality-are today heard everywhere, and they are used to endorse a wide range of positions, some of which are in perfect contradiction. While Orwell's 1984 claims that there is one phrase in the English language that resists translation into Newspeak, namely the opening lines of that key Enlightenment text, the Declaration of Independence: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...', we also find the Wall Street Journal saying of the Iraq War that the US was 'fighting for the very notion of the Enlightenment'. It seems we are no longer sure whether these truths are self-evident nor quite what they might mean today. Based on the critically acclaimed Oxford Amnesty Lectures series, this book brings together a number of major international figures to debate the history of freedom, tolerance, equality, and to explore the complex legacy of the Enlightenment for human rights. The lectures are published here with responses from other leading figures in the field.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Kate E. Tunstall
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic USA
Dimensions:   Width: 13.80cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.345kg
ISBN:  

9781441185242

ISBN 10:   1441185240
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   08 November 2012
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

What Are the Oxford Amnesty Lectures? AcknowledgementsPreface Kate E. Tunstall (University of Oxford) Part I: Human Rights Today: an Enlightenment Legacy? Chapter OneRethinking Human Rights and Enlightenment: A View from the Twenty-First Century James Tully (University of Victoria)A Response to James TullyChristopher Brooke (University of Cambridge) Chapter Two That the General Will is Indestructible : From a Citizen of Geneva to the Citizens of Gaza Karma Nabulsi (University of Oxford)Singular and Exemplary: The Theory and Experience of Citizenship in Rousseau. A Response to Karma NabulsiOurida Mostefai (Boston College) Chapter ThreeCosmopolitanism after Kant: Claiming Rights Across Borders in a New Century Seyla Benhabib (Princeton University) The Making of Norms versus the Making of a Rights-bearing Subject: A Response to Seyla BenhabibSaskia Sassen (Columbia University and London School of Economics) Part II: Revolutions and Declarations Chapter FourPhilosophy, Religion, and the Controversy about Basic Human Rights in 1789 Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) A Response to Jonathan IsraelDan Edelstein (Stanford University) Chapter FiveSlavery, Emancipation and Human Rights Robin Blackburn (Essex and the New School) Rights, Resistance and Emancipation: A Response to Robin BlackburnDavid Geggus (University of Florida) Part III: Particular Rights: the Pursuit of Happiness and Freedom of Speech Chapter SixMy Happiness, Right or Wrong? Adam Phillips (Writer and Child psychologist) On Being Happy Not to Pursue Happiness: A Response to Adam PhillipsPatrick Mackie (Writer and Independent scholar) Chapter SevenToleration and Calumny Jeremy Waldron (University of Oxford and New York School of Law) Rights Persuasion: A Response to Jeremy WaldronLiora Lazarus (University of Oxford) Afterword: The Self-Evidence of Human Rights Samuel Moyn (Columbia University) List of Contributors Index

Reviews

The decision by the editor to pair each contribution with a distinct response works extremely well, as the reader is able to witness a conversation between author and critic that is often very stimulating ... An intellectually stimulating and exciting volume. Journal of Social History and the History of Social Movements

The decision by the editor to pair each contribution with a distinct response works extremely well, as the reader is able to witness a conversation between author and critic that is often very stimulating ... An intellectually stimulating and exciting volume. -- Stefan Berger * Journal of Social History and the History of Social Movements *

The decision by the editor to pair each contribution with a distinct response works extremely well, as the reader is able to witness a conversation between author and critic that is often very stimulating ... An intellectually stimulating and exciting volume.Journal of Social History and the History of Social Movements

Author Information

Kate E. Tunstall is University Lecturer in French at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Worcester College. She is Programme Director of Oxford's Besterman Centre for the Enlightenment, a Director of the Oxford Amnesty Lectures, and she co-authored and co-presented (with Caroline Warman) a series of BBC radio programmes on Diderot.

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