The Inhumanity of Right (1)

By: Christos Yannaras

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Synopsis: In this study of an important aspect of political theory, Christos Yannaras argues that the concept of the right of the individual (since Hegel's Philosophy of Right) summarizes the philosophical and cultural identity of the paradigm of modernity. The philosophical assumptions underlying the concept of right have not hitherto been subjected to a searching critique. This book maintains that the starting-point of the concept of right is a phenomenalistic naturalism, which presupposes an abstract concept of the human subject as a fundamentally undifferentiated natural individual. The question is explored of how the priority accorded to this concept of right is related to the contemporary crisis of the modern politico-social paradigm. Against the modern concept of right with its illusion of objectivity, Yannaras sketches out the basic lines of a political theory that prioritizes new social needs that reflect the relational character of the human person.