Sanctity of Man
About This Novel
People today often have deep sympathy for those unfortunate people in difficult situations. The photo of a 3-year-old boy lying dead on a Turkish beach has the power to stir people's hearts! Underpinning this strong sentiment are the human rights concepts of liberty, equality, and fraternity that were highlighted in the French Revolution. So where did the almost sanctified concept of human rights originate? Some say it is a Christian-Jewish heritage, others say it is an invention of the Enlightenment. This book believes that neither answer is accurate. According to Hans Joas, this belief in universal human dignity is the result of a process of sanctification. And this process of sanctification is often connected with violence and watered with blood. It was the bloody dictatorship that broke out during the French Revolution, the tragic American Civil War that broke out due to the abolition of slavery, the countless casualties caused by the two world wars, and the innocent sacrifices of millions of Jews and other tragic events in human history that triggered people's extreme respect and long-term reflection on human dignity. As the author says, human rights are not the result of a simple consensus on a universal principle, but are shaped by many parts of human history.
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