On Human Rights

Is liberalism's attempt to defend universal rights an historical and hopeless quest doomed to failure? In this second volume of "The Oxford Amnesty Lecture" series seven political philosphers approach the problem from a variety of perspectives, and illustrate their arguments with a wealth of contemporary and historical examples. Together they grapple with the key question of contemporary political philosophy - articulating universal human rights that always apply in all cultures. The contributors include John Rawls, Richard Rorty, Catharine MacKinnon, Stephen Lukes, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Agnes Heller and John Elster. Susan Hurley is the author of "Natural Reasons".