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Von Hügel Institute

for Critical Catholic Inquiry
 

Led by Dr Flavio Comim

 

 

The reading Group will read and discuss "INVENTING HUMAN RIGHTS: A HISTORY" by Lynn Hunt  (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007).

Human rights is a concept that only came to the forefront during the eighteenth century. When the American Declaration of Independence declared "all men are created equal" and the French proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man, they were bringing a new guarantee into the world. Professor Lynn Hunt questions why it happened then and how such a revelation came to pass. In this extraordinary work of cultural and intellectual history, she grounds the creation of human rights in the changes that authors brought to literature, the rejection of torture as a means of finding out truth and the spread of empathy. Hunt traces the amazing rise of rights, their momentous eclipse in the nineteenth century and their culmination as a principle with the United Nations' proclamation in 1948. She finishes this work with a diagnosis of the state of human rights today.

Dr Flavio Comim will be leading the Reading Group for seven weeks during Lent Term. The FIRST meeting will take place on Wednesday 23rd January from 14:00 to 16:00 at St. Edmund's College, Okinaga Room. The following meetings are Wedns. 30th January, 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th February, 6th March. No booking necessary, everyone welcome!

For further information please write to Dr Flavio Comim (fvc1001@cam.ac.uk)
 

 

 

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