Abstract

What do we mean when we talk about human rights? This is the question at the core of an ongoing philosophical debate between advocates of naturalistic and political theories on human rights. Discussing both strengths and weaknesses of these positions, the author proposes an alternative understanding of fundamental rights: Human rights should be understood as membership rights in a political society. This book thus not only offers the first profound discussion in the German language of one of the most important contemporary debates in political philosophy, but also proposes a novel interpretation of one of the defining concepts of modern normative thinking.