Dignity in adversity : human rights in troubled times /

In this collection of essays, Benhabib (Yale Univ.) develops what David J. Depew calls a critical cosmopolitanism that is "a negative ideal aimed at blocking false totalization." Benhabib insists that cosmopolitanism at its best is not the milieu of a disconnected, globetrotting elite. Rather, its best deployment seeks to explore the tensions between universal belonging and individual identity that play out in the politics of human rights. The author charts a course that endorses and reinforces the move from mere international norms of justice to cosmopolitan ones that she argues was inaugurated by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There she finds the critical articulation for this development that strives against a more limited, state-centric approach to global justice that until recently dominated the field. The argument for recognition of rights beyond the state is related to Hannah Arendt's formulation of a "right to have rights." However, this notion must be strengthened, Benhabib argues, so that its specific reference to a political community is broadened to each human being so that they are "protected as a legal personality by the world community." Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. A. B. Commissiong West Texas A&M University