Human rightism: Rousseauian or Anti-Rousseauian Heritage?

Abstract

Autorica nastoji pokazati da su suvremene rasprave o ljudskim pravima i borbe za njihovo ostvarenje umnogome različite od Rousseauovih intencija, premda se upravo njega smatra jednim od rodonačelnika modernog koncepta borbe za prava čovjeka. Prvi argument u prilog toj tezi ogleda se u činjenici da suvremeni svijet poznaje ljudska prava prije svega u formi političke korektnosti i transformacije prava čovjeka u prava određenih grupa ljudi, čime se zamagljuje izvorni smisao Rousseauovog stava o čovjeku koji se rađa slobodan a svuda je u okovima (to više nije čovjek nego žena, dijete, veteran, osoba s posebnim potrebama, pripadnik LGBT populacije, etc.). Drugi i svakako problematičniji argument jest mogućnost da se rousseauovski »povratak prirodi« protumači kao upravo suprotan suvremenim tendencijama proširenja opsega ljudskih prava, budući da tek civilizacijski napredak uopće čini mogućim nešto poput »prava obespravljenih«.The author tends to show that contemporary discussions on human rights and fights for their realization are significantly different from Rousseau’s intentions, although he is considered to be one of the main founders of modern concept of the fight for human rights. The first argument in favour of that thesis is seen in fact that contemporary world comprehends human rights primarily in forms of “political correctness” and transformation of rights of the man into the rights of specific groups of people. In such a way, the original meaning of Rousseau’s claim that “man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” is blurred (it is no longer man, but female, child, veteran, person with special needs, member of LGBT community etc.). Second – and definitely more problematic argument – is possibility to interpret Rousseauian “return to nature” as directly opposite to contemporary tendencies toward expanding the volume of human rights, since only the civilization progress makes even possible something like “the rights of the disenfranchised”