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user5172

Alasdair MacIntyre is a famous critic of rights. See his book "After Virtue":

The truth is plain: there are no such [i.e. human] rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and unicorns.

The best reason for asserting so bluntly that there are no such rights is indeed of precisely the same type as the best reason we have for asserting that there are no witches and the best reason we have for asserting that there are no unicorns: every attempt to believe that there are such rights has failed. (p. 69)

To evaluate the cogency of MacIntyre's claim goes beyond what can be done in an SE answer--you'd need to read his account of those attempts and decide for yourself whether his negative evaluation is warranted.

edit: also generally marxist theorists are critical of human rights discourse, seeing it as a bourgeois ruse to deny equality to the proletariat.

Alasdair MacIntyre is a famous critic of rights. See his book "After Virtue":

The truth is plain: there are no such [i.e. human] rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and unicorns.

The best reason for asserting so bluntly that there are no such rights is indeed of precisely the same type as the best reason we have for asserting that there are no witches and the best reason we have for asserting that there are no unicorns: every attempt to believe that there are such rights has failed. (p. 69)

To evaluate the cogency of MacIntyre's claim goes beyond what can be done in an SE answer--you'd need to read his account of those attempts and decide for yourself whether his negative evaluation is warranted.

Alasdair MacIntyre is a famous critic of rights. See his book "After Virtue":

The truth is plain: there are no such [i.e. human] rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and unicorns.

The best reason for asserting so bluntly that there are no such rights is indeed of precisely the same type as the best reason we have for asserting that there are no witches and the best reason we have for asserting that there are no unicorns: every attempt to believe that there are such rights has failed. (p. 69)

To evaluate the cogency of MacIntyre's claim goes beyond what can be done in an SE answer--you'd need to read his account of those attempts and decide for yourself whether his negative evaluation is warranted.

edit: also generally marxist theorists are critical of human rights discourse, seeing it as a bourgeois ruse to deny equality to the proletariat.

Source Link
user5172
user5172

Alasdair MacIntyre is a famous critic of rights. See his book "After Virtue":

The truth is plain: there are no such [i.e. human] rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and unicorns.

The best reason for asserting so bluntly that there are no such rights is indeed of precisely the same type as the best reason we have for asserting that there are no witches and the best reason we have for asserting that there are no unicorns: every attempt to believe that there are such rights has failed. (p. 69)

To evaluate the cogency of MacIntyre's claim goes beyond what can be done in an SE answer--you'd need to read his account of those attempts and decide for yourself whether his negative evaluation is warranted.