The "other" and us : a philosophical research around the concept of responsibility in human rights

Abstract

The present work focuses – in the broader context of human rights - on the theme of «responsibility». The latter is investigated in the first section from a strictly theoretical point of view, namely in close relation to the philosophical reflections of the authors who seem to have contributed most to the development of this notion. In the second part - in a relationship of continuity to the philosophical perspectives and theoretical interpretations gained in the first - some reflections concerning the theme of responsibility closely related to human rights and their conceptual structure are developed. Subsequently, still in the second part of the work, the focus of the research is moved to the analysis of some problems connected to the world of human rights and related to some particular philosophical interpretations of the concept of responsibility. The purpose of this last approach is to create a dialogue between practical issues and the philosophical reflection in general, in order to show how a theoretical awareness of a specific issue may be helpful to the setting of a more accurate and concrete questioning about current and particularly complex issues in the field. Keywords: human rights, philosophy, responsibility, ethics, politics, society, collective/community, other/otherness.