Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
Two main but discrepant tendencies characterize the intellectual climate of our world at the turn of the century. We promote, on the one hand, “respect for human rights,” i.e. for certain universal norms, but on the other hand, equally promote “respect to all cultures,”which are differentiated among themselves by their different world-views and their parochial norms. Not rarely do we see that the demands that such parochial norms bring are contradictory to those of human rights.
1. See also I. Kuçuradi, "Introduction to the Seminar," in: I. Kuçuradi and R.S. Cohen (eds.), The Concept of Knowledge. The Ankara Seminar, Dordrecht, 1995, pp. IX-XV.
2. T. Lindholm, "Prospect for Research on the Cultural Legitimacy of Human Rights," in: in: A.A. An-Na'im (ed.), Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspec tives, Philadelphia, 1992, pp. 387-426; J. Rawls, "Lecture IV. The Idea of Over lapping Consensus," in: Idem, Political Liberalism, New York, 1993, pp. 133-72.
3. For these other developments see I. Kuçuradi, "Les droits de l'homme et la décennie du développement culturel," in: Birlesmis Milletler Türk Dernegi 1988 Yilligi, Ankara, 1990, pp. 25-33, and "Cultural Morals and Global Morality in the Light of Ethics," in: WASCO ‘88. The World Community in Post-Industrial Society 4, Seoul, 1989, pp. 41-47.
4. See also I. Kuçuradi, "Economic Disparities and the Fashionable Linking of Human Rights, Democracy and Free Market," in: Violence and Human Coexis tence, Vol. V, Montreal, 1995, pp. 330-36.
5. I am well aware that I am saying something here that seems at variance with a widespread understanding of notions of "freedom of thought" and that this is something dangerous so long as this understanding prevails. But are we obliged to take this understanding for granted?
6. On the specificity of such norms see I. Kuçuradi, "Normlarin Bilimsel Temel lendirilebilirligi (The Scientific Justifiability of Norms)," in: Çagin Olaylari Arasinda (Among the Events of Our Time), Ankara, 1980, pp. 182-89.
7. On this point see I. Kuçuradi, "Human Rights Instruments Questioned in the Light of the Idea of Human Rights," in: I. Kuçuradi (ed.), The Idea and the Docu ments of Human Rights, Ankara, 1995, pp. 75-92, in which articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are given as examples.