Mediating Between Thick Invocations of the Common Good and Thin Apeals to Human Rights: The Case of South Africa
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Abstract
How shall we think of our public reasoning in modern, pluralist societies? Is the most reasonable doctrine a “thin” public morality, e.g., a “moral Esperanto” of rights? Or as Michael Walzer urges, must we concede that “morality is thick from the beginning, culturally integrated” in particular narrative traditions? Benjamin Gregg offers an incisive and original response in Thick Moralities, Thin Politics: Social Integration Across Communities of Belief. In responding to Gregg, I explore the role of human rights in the public, political discourse of modern, pluralist polities, drawing, in particular, on victims’ narratives in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). For, despite its limitations, the TRC offers an illuminating exercise in social integration among diverse communities.
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2)
See Pumla Gobodo-Madikileza (2003): the Commission was charged to “establish as complete a picture as possible – including the antecedents, circumstances, factors and context of [gross human rights] violations as well as the causes, motives and perspectives of persons responsible” (Section 3(1)(a), Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, no. 34, 1995).
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Mediating Between Thick Invocations of the Common Good and Thin Apeals to Human Rights: The Case of South Africa
In: Comparative SociologySearch for other papers by William O’Neill in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
How shall we think of our public reasoning in modern, pluralist societies? Is the most reasonable doctrine a “thin” public morality, e.g., a “moral Esperanto” of rights? Or as Michael Walzer urges, must we concede that “morality is thick from the beginning, culturally integrated” in particular narrative traditions? Benjamin Gregg offers an incisive and original response in Thick Moralities, Thin Politics: Social Integration Across Communities of Belief. In responding to Gregg, I explore the role of human rights in the public, political discourse of modern, pluralist polities, drawing, in particular, on victims’ narratives in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). For, despite its limitations, the TRC offers an illuminating exercise in social integration among diverse communities.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 82 | 32 | 7 |
| Full Text Views | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 9 | 1 | 0 |
