Human Rights and the Three Senses of Humanity

What is the relationship between the concept of humanity and human rights? This paper argues that at least three senses of humanity inform understandings of human rights: a biological sense, a cultural sense, and a political sense. The paper engages critically with contemporary human rights theorists who emphasize that human needs are the ethical source of human rights (e.g., Christian Bay and Brian Orend), as well as with the writings of John Dewey, who offers insight into the socially constructed and cultural character of humanity, and Hannah Arendt, who offers insight into the unprecedented common world that emerged among humans in the twentieth century and the political implications of that phenomenon. Through these engagements, the paper attempts to illuminate the three senses of humanity and contends that they should be better understood if human rights supporters wish to harness the concept's power and avoid its dangers