From the rights of man to the republican idea

"What is the common element linking the right to health care and the right of free speech, the right to leisure and the right of free association, the right to work and the right to be protected? Debates on the rights of man abound in the media today, but all too often they remain confused and fail to recognize the fundamental political conceptions on which they hinge." "Several French theorists have recently attempted a new account of rights, one that would replace the discredited Marxist view of rights as mere formalities concealing the realities of class domination. In this final volume of Political Philosophy, Luc Ferry and Alain Renaut summarize these efforts and put forward their own set of arguments." "Organizing their reflections around the dichotomy between two kinds of rights - permissions and entitlements - Ferry and Renaut show that the rights of man as conceived by nineteenth-century liberal thinkers not only differ from, but actually oppose, those invoked by socialism. They point out, moreover, that the very notions of "the right" and "the left" have today become more equivocal than ever." "Ferry and Renaut argue passionately that the breach between liberalism and socialism, and between the right and the left, can and must be healed by a recognition that both traditions have identified essential human rights. Where liberalism has identified the right of individuals to act against the state <permissions), so socialism has identified the right of individuals to oblige it <entitlements). A third right, the authors argue, must also be identified: the right of participation that is bound up with the idea of citizenship in a democratic republic." "Brilliantly completing the ambitious Political Philosophy, this volume clearly traces the history of theoretical positions for and against the idea of the rights of man and offers an excellent introduction to the study of modern political philosophy."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.