This entry is to assist Professors teaching this book in their philosophy courses. It will also be useful to students and general readers who wish to get the most out of the book
A Student’s Guide
To
Michael Boylan
Natural Human Rights: A Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)
[It is suggested that students answer all the prompts/questions and that they be used to structure class discussion.]
PART ONE: CONCEPTUALIZING HUMAN RIGHTS
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “The Spotted Butterfly.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
Chapter One:
(a) Go over the common usages and choose three to put into a sentence. Be prepared to share with the class.
(b) Compare and contrast Hohfeld’s jural opposites and correlatives. How are these alike and how are they different?
(c) How are type-a (overt claims) and type-b (silent claims) different? Should both be recognized? How does your answer to these questions relate to Justice as a touchstone for human rights?
(d) What is negative and positive liberty? How do they connect to rights claims?
(e) Analyze the logical formula for rights claims on page 20. What is the significance of this being posed in general terms?
(f) Go over the formula on rights and duties on page 22 and plug in your own example (prepare to share with the class).
(g) Prepare an interpretation of thought experiment 1.2 using the formula on rights and duties to help you explicate it.
(h) What does it mean to bear a duty? Why do some people think this is a significant problem?
Chapter Two:
(a) Why do some argue that “human rights” is a recent phenomenon?
(b) How do examples from the Odyssey and Antigone suggest natural law in the ancient world?
(c) Interpret the significance of the argument from Plato’s Euthyphro (p. 40)?
(d) Choose between Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, and Cicero and set out the case that they believed in natural law (pp. 41-45)
(e) How do the poems “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer” suggest natural law?
(f) Choose a medieval philosopher and set out his attitude toward natural law (pp. 50-54)
(g) How does Milton in Paradise Lost change the literary depiction of the Enlightenment (and the emerging role of the individual)?
(h) Choose an Enlightenment philosopher and set out his attitude toward natural law and individualism (pp. 59-63).
Chapter Three:
(a) How does Sun Tzu reflect attitudes about natural law?
(b) How does Confucius reflect attitudes about natural law (especially the role of the community)?
(c) What is the significance in Mencius about striving to be good?
(d) What does The Book of Songs say about natural law?
(e) How do the neo-Confucians deal with the nature of humans and their place in community?
(f) What is the significance of the passage in the Diamond Sutra to the individual journey to Buddhist Enlightenment?
(g) How did human rights concepts from Europe interact in China during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries?
(h) What is the language debate on translating “rights” into Chinese and back again?
(i) Analyze Gao Xingjian’s and Dai Sijie’s literary contribution to human rights discussion in China today?
PART TWO: JUSTIFICATIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “Double Talk.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
Chapter Four:
(a) What is the legal approach to justifying human rights? What is the mechanism for acceptance?
(b) What problems are posed by international law?
(c) How are meta-foundational rules handled in the legal justification approach?
(d) Evaluate argument 4.1 by John Rawls. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(e) Evaluate argument 4.2 by Charles Beitz. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(f) Why has Boylan rejected the legal justification approach?
Chapter Five:
(a) How does the “interest approach” justify human rights?
(b) Evaluate arguments 5.1 and 5.2 by Joseph Raz. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(c) Consider thought experiment 5.1. How should one rank the virtue of loyalty?
(d) Evaluate arguments 5.3 and 5.4 by James Griffin. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(e) Why has Boylan rejected the interest justification approach?
Chapter Six:
(a) How does “capability theory” justify human rights?
(b) Evaluate arguments 6.1 and 6.2. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(c) Consider Nussbaum’s Central Human Functional Capabilities. Which do you feel are the most important? Least important? What is the scale that allows you to make this judgment?
(d) Evaluate the argument in table 6.1. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(e) What is the personal worldview imperative? How do the four parts work together?
(f) What are the community worldview imperatives? How many are there? How do they work together (externally and internally)?
(g) Evaluate argument 6.3. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(h) What is the Table of Embeddedness? How is it related to argument 6.3? How is it different from Nussbaum’s Central Human Functional Capacities?
(i) How does the model of the puzzle maker seek to explain human desert?
(j) How are the national and cosmopolitan perspectives different? Which one does Boylan support?
(k) What makes Boylan’s theory natural?
Chapter Seven:
(a) What is the difference between moral realism and moral anti-realism?
(b) Why include ontology in human rights talk?
(c) Do human rights attach themselves to individuals or to groups? Why?
(d) Consider table 7.1: The Way We Confront Novel Normative Theories. What is the rationale for this approach? What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses?
(e) Choose an event in human history (not mentioned in the book) and explain it using the distinctions set out in table 7.1.
(f) Do you find table 7.1 hopeful or pessimistic? Why?
PART THREE: APPLICATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “Straight to the Top.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
Chapter Eight:
(a) What facts about war rape surprise you the most? Do you think the answer to this question is culturally or gender-linked?
(b) Evaluate the primary judgment phase. What do you believe is the right thing to do (give reasons)?
(c) Evaluate the secondary judgment phase. What policy responses do you believe will support the primary judgment phase (give reasons)?
Chapter Nine:
(a) What facts about political speech surprise you the most? Do you think the answer to this is culturally linked?
(b) Evaluate the primary judgment phase. What do you believe is the right thing to do (give reasons)?
(c) Evaluate the secondary judgment phase. What policy responses do you believe will support the primary judgment phase (give reasons)?
Chapter Ten:
(a) What facts about LGBT rights surprise you the most? Do you think the answer to this is culturally linked?
(b) Evaluate the primary judgment phase. What do you believe is the right thing to do (give reasons)?
(c) Evaluate the secondary judgment phase. What policy responses do you believe will support the primary judgment phase (give reasons)?
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “The Game.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
A Student’s Guide
To
Michael Boylan
Natural Human Rights: A Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)
[It is suggested that students answer all the prompts/questions and that they be used to structure class discussion.]
PART ONE: CONCEPTUALIZING HUMAN RIGHTS
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “The Spotted Butterfly.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
Chapter One:
(a) Go over the common usages and choose three to put into a sentence. Be prepared to share with the class.
(b) Compare and contrast Hohfeld’s jural opposites and correlatives. How are these alike and how are they different?
(c) How are type-a (overt claims) and type-b (silent claims) different? Should both be recognized? How does your answer to these questions relate to Justice as a touchstone for human rights?
(d) What is negative and positive liberty? How do they connect to rights claims?
(e) Analyze the logical formula for rights claims on page 20. What is the significance of this being posed in general terms?
(f) Go over the formula on rights and duties on page 22 and plug in your own example (prepare to share with the class).
(g) Prepare an interpretation of thought experiment 1.2 using the formula on rights and duties to help you explicate it.
(h) What does it mean to bear a duty? Why do some people think this is a significant problem?
Chapter Two:
(a) Why do some argue that “human rights” is a recent phenomenon?
(b) How do examples from the Odyssey and Antigone suggest natural law in the ancient world?
(c) Interpret the significance of the argument from Plato’s Euthyphro (p. 40)?
(d) Choose between Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, and Cicero and set out the case that they believed in natural law (pp. 41-45)
(e) How do the poems “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer” suggest natural law?
(f) Choose a medieval philosopher and set out his attitude toward natural law (pp. 50-54)
(g) How does Milton in Paradise Lost change the literary depiction of the Enlightenment (and the emerging role of the individual)?
(h) Choose an Enlightenment philosopher and set out his attitude toward natural law and individualism (pp. 59-63).
Chapter Three:
(a) How does Sun Tzu reflect attitudes about natural law?
(b) How does Confucius reflect attitudes about natural law (especially the role of the community)?
(c) What is the significance in Mencius about striving to be good?
(d) What does The Book of Songs say about natural law?
(e) How do the neo-Confucians deal with the nature of humans and their place in community?
(f) What is the significance of the passage in the Diamond Sutra to the individual journey to Buddhist Enlightenment?
(g) How did human rights concepts from Europe interact in China during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries?
(h) What is the language debate on translating “rights” into Chinese and back again?
(i) Analyze Gao Xingjian’s and Dai Sijie’s literary contribution to human rights discussion in China today?
PART TWO: JUSTIFICATIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “Double Talk.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
Chapter Four:
(a) What is the legal approach to justifying human rights? What is the mechanism for acceptance?
(b) What problems are posed by international law?
(c) How are meta-foundational rules handled in the legal justification approach?
(d) Evaluate argument 4.1 by John Rawls. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(e) Evaluate argument 4.2 by Charles Beitz. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(f) Why has Boylan rejected the legal justification approach?
Chapter Five:
(a) How does the “interest approach” justify human rights?
(b) Evaluate arguments 5.1 and 5.2 by Joseph Raz. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(c) Consider thought experiment 5.1. How should one rank the virtue of loyalty?
(d) Evaluate arguments 5.3 and 5.4 by James Griffin. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(e) Why has Boylan rejected the interest justification approach?
Chapter Six:
(a) How does “capability theory” justify human rights?
(b) Evaluate arguments 6.1 and 6.2. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(c) Consider Nussbaum’s Central Human Functional Capabilities. Which do you feel are the most important? Least important? What is the scale that allows you to make this judgment?
(d) Evaluate the argument in table 6.1. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(e) What is the personal worldview imperative? How do the four parts work together?
(f) What are the community worldview imperatives? How many are there? How do they work together (externally and internally)?
(g) Evaluate argument 6.3. What are the most controversial premises? Why would someone be in favor of these? Why might one oppose these?
(h) What is the Table of Embeddedness? How is it related to argument 6.3? How is it different from Nussbaum’s Central Human Functional Capacities?
(i) How does the model of the puzzle maker seek to explain human desert?
(j) How are the national and cosmopolitan perspectives different? Which one does Boylan support?
(k) What makes Boylan’s theory natural?
Chapter Seven:
(a) What is the difference between moral realism and moral anti-realism?
(b) Why include ontology in human rights talk?
(c) Do human rights attach themselves to individuals or to groups? Why?
(d) Consider table 7.1: The Way We Confront Novel Normative Theories. What is the rationale for this approach? What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses?
(e) Choose an event in human history (not mentioned in the book) and explain it using the distinctions set out in table 7.1.
(f) Do you find table 7.1 hopeful or pessimistic? Why?
PART THREE: APPLICATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “Straight to the Top.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
Chapter Eight:
(a) What facts about war rape surprise you the most? Do you think the answer to this question is culturally or gender-linked?
(b) Evaluate the primary judgment phase. What do you believe is the right thing to do (give reasons)?
(c) Evaluate the secondary judgment phase. What policy responses do you believe will support the primary judgment phase (give reasons)?
Chapter Nine:
(a) What facts about political speech surprise you the most? Do you think the answer to this is culturally linked?
(b) Evaluate the primary judgment phase. What do you believe is the right thing to do (give reasons)?
(c) Evaluate the secondary judgment phase. What policy responses do you believe will support the primary judgment phase (give reasons)?
Chapter Ten:
(a) What facts about LGBT rights surprise you the most? Do you think the answer to this is culturally linked?
(b) Evaluate the primary judgment phase. What do you believe is the right thing to do (give reasons)?
(c) Evaluate the secondary judgment phase. What policy responses do you believe will support the primary judgment phase (give reasons)?
In 300 words, describe your reactions to “The Game.” What bothered you the most? What was second? Is there any hope in this story?
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