Heute noch Naturrecht ? Deinhammer, Robert
Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie,
01/2019, Volume:
141, Issue:
1
Journal Article
In this paper, I develop the idea of a critical natural law theory as a proposal for debate. This approach attempts to reconcile the legitimate concerns of the Aristotelian-Thomist tradition in ...natural law ethics with contemporary philosophical insights. My main thesis is that morally right action is fully reasonable action in the sense that it does not contradict, in the long run and on the whole, the very values which one pursues by this action or undermines unnecessarily other values. Moral rightness amounts to a truly sustainable way of dealing with premoral values and is grounded in the rational nature of human beings. I also address the relationship between religious faith and morality.
The New Atheism critiques religion and theology, yet without engaging two issues of prime importance. The first of these is the failure of the New Atheists to formulate an ethics that contains ...authoritative sentences. The second is New Atheism's failure to engage not a caricature of religion but religion with its philosophical and theological reasoning. At the root of these failures is New Atheism's reliance on a naïve naturalism.
Human rights and cultural relativism Deinhammer, Robert
Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie,
01/2010, Volume:
96, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this essay I want to show that it is possible to combine the claim of universality in human rights with the fact that various cultures involve various moral and legal traditions. I will argue for ...the concept of a 'pragmatic' or 'weak' universalism in which human rights are both: universal and concrete. First I shall present the traditional idea of human rights. Then I shall object the arguments of cultural relativism fighting universalism. And finally I shall draw the lines of a new ethic of human rights: Human rights have a rational basis, if they protect people against ultimately 'counter-productive' actions (of the state). Abstract printed by permission of Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany
