Die Sakralität der Person. Eine neue Genealogie der Menschenrechte

by Hans Joas

What are the origins of the idea of human rights and universal human dignity? How can we most fully understand -- and realize -- these rights going into the future? In "The Sacredness of the Person," internationally renowned sociologist and social theorist Hans Joas tells a story that differs from conventional narratives by tracing the concept of human rights back to the Judeo-Christian tradition or, alternately, to the secular French Enlightenment. While drawing on sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Ernst Troeltsch, Joas sets out a new path, proposing an affirmative genealogy in which human rights are the result of a process of the "sacralization" of every human being.

According to Joas, every single human being has increasingly been viewed as sacred. He discusses the abolition of torture and slavery, once common practice in the pre-18th century west, as two milestones in modern human history. The author concludes by portraying the emergence of the UN Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 as a successful process of value generalization. Joas demonstrates that the history of human rights cannot adequately be described as a history of ideas or as legal history, but a complex transformation in which diverse cultural traditions had to be articulated, legally codified, and assimilated into practices of everyday life. The sacralization of the person and universal human rights will only be secure in the future, warns Joas, through continued support by institutions and society, vigorous discourse in their defense, and their incarnation in everyday life and practice.

303 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2011

Reviews

[versarbre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Tiryakian said in his review,"a small book with big ideas"! Finally got to read the book after almost four years! I never thought about the philosophical/theological/metaphysical foundations for an idea of human right. I have found no interest in popular polemical talks about the H.R. stuff, and thought the many discussions on it from a philosophic perspective was more like attempts to rationalize the idea when you already accepts it undeniably. What Hans Joas has done is none of this. A historical theologian or a sociologist of religion, he is well aware of the historical quality of the political-correctness of the idea of H.R. So instead of giving another justificatory account for the H.R. as some sort of eternity, he treats as an emergent phenomenon and contextualizes it against the background of the sacralization of the person in the modern time. In other words, if we take the starting point to be competing theories (or metaphysical claims) of personhood, and recognize that there are traditions in which humans are not on the center in man's purview (as the Catholic church when it first met with the French Revolution), then the emergence of the H.R. as collectively accepted spirit of the age is should be considered a process of sacralization of the person (as compared to the sacralization of other entities, such as nation, culture, etc.). This also gives us a different perspective of thinking about secularization by reframing it as changing formulations of the sacred.

[Lorraine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goodreads needs a category in the "want to read/currently reading/read" section called "not continuing" for books like this that are just so bad, they are not worth turning another page. Hans Joas attempts to cast aspersions on the great minds of philosophy like Kant and Neitzsche, and to claim pre-eminence for religion as the fountain of human rights. He speaks of the myth of the Enlightenment and pursues his Christian dogma by ignoring and denying the perspectives of great atheist foundation scholars like Durkheim - simply because he is atheist. This sad little churchy book is going in the bin. I'm only sorry I wasted money buying at the book shop at Columbia law school, New York, where I was studying human rights law.

[Michael Nielsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I abandoned this 70% of the way through. The beginning had moments of interest, but the book went downhill, getting lost in abstraction and not grounding itself in the concrete.

I do find interesting the historic process of gradually valuing the individual more and more, this historical process of sacralization. As is the notion that judgement of an idea may actually depend on the geneaology of an idea. But I learned less than I expected about them from the book.

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to follow as an audiobook. Introduction was interesting and worth a reread.

[Christina “6 word reviewer” Lake]

Investigates origins of sacralization of persons.

[Jessica Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at how we moved toward a sacralization of the person. Highly recommend

[Veronica Miglio · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, but sometimes a bit complicated.
I would recommend it to someone who knows philosophy really well.