first two discussions as a means of assessing the thesis of this research that: "An Absence of Political Consensus Across Cultures on Interpretation of the Term 'Human Rights' Renders the Concept of 'Universal Rights' Virtually Meaningless in the Contemporary Period."
The concept of human rights is a component of political philosophy. There are two ways of viewing the nature of political philosophy. First, one may identify the principal recurrent problems and the methods of dealing with them which are present in the classic literature. The second way is to proceed from an assumption as to what is involved in philosophical inquiry to the development of applications for the field of political inquiry (Schmid & Wuketits, 1987).
The first approach treats political philosophy as something separate and distinct from other philosophies, while recognizing that political philosophy itself has its own traditions (Bellah, et al., 1991). While this approach is widely used by contemporary political philosophers, the classic philosophers from which political philosophy draws its traditions drew readily from other philosophies. The result is that much of the classic literature of political philosophy deals with conceptual analysis, while much of the contemporary literature of political philosophy deals with conjectures as to how political structures work, and as to causal links between institutional forms and policies (Bellah, et al., 1991).
Only a few modern political philosophers, such as Hegel, have made attempts to place politics and its institutions in an encompassing metaphysical framework. Marxism's explanation of class conflict is another such example. Political philosophies of this type are typically anchored to a specific view of the nature of man and human rights, such as Bentham's utilitarian theory, or Aristotle's conception of nature as something consisting in the characteristic excellence of which it is capable.
The m...