Human Rights and Moral Pluralism

Abstract

This chapter pushes the inquiry further and argues that while the idea of rights, including human rights, is an important strand in our moral vocabulary, it cannot be its sole basis. It ignores large areas of human life where the idea of rights makes little sense and, if exclusively pursued, could dry up the wellsprings of altruism, moral responsibility and other valuable dispositions. The modern tendency to make human rights the sole or the dominant basis of morality makes them carry a burden they cannot bear and oversimplifies the complexity and pluralism of moral life.