Human Rights Across Cultures: Second Paper

Write a paper of approximately 7 pages on either one of the following topics, or a topic of your own choosing. If you would like to write on your own topic, you must have cleared it with me by the end of the day Monday, 11/11/02. The paper is due at 5 p.m. on Friday, 11/15 in a box in the second floor lobby of Russell House.

General Issues

• All papers must begin with a title page on which your name appears. The text of the essay itself should begin on the second page; your name should not appear on this or any subsequent pages, though your WesID may.
• All papers should be typed or word-processed, double-spaced, with 1" margins.
• I expect you to edit your papers carefully before handing them in: you should look not only for problems with content, but also for grammatical errors and typos. It is a very good idea to read your paper out loud, as this will help you to notice stylistic and grammatical problems.
• Any use of another person's ideas, words, or interpretations must be cited. All materials to which you refer should be listed in a Bibliography at the end of your paper; specific references to these texts in the body of the paper should be paranthetic abbreviations in the text. For instance, to refer to The World Made New, my reference would look like this: (Glendon 2001, p. 23). The bibliographic entry should look like this:
  • Glendon, Mary Ann. 2001. A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York: Random House.
• Here is another example, using a quotation. Notice where the period goes -- and that there is no comma or other mark within the quotation marks.
  • Glendon writes that Chang was "a big man with a high-domed forehead" (Glendon 2001, p. 44).
• You are welcome to make use of things said by other students or by me during class or via WebBoard, but make sure to back up whatever you say with textual references, and to cite your sources. For example:
  • Smith, John. 2002. "Comment on 9/10 class." WebBoard Posting, September 12, 2002.

Suggested Paper Topics

• Rorty endorses a form of "ethnocentrism" that is, he thinks, "inevitable and unobjectionable" (Cosmopolitanism, p. 212). Explicate his notion of ethnocentrism and assess: is it either inevitable or unobjectionable?
• Parekh has some nice things to say about Rorty -- especially with regard to Rorty's suspicion of "human nature" -- but also raises two criticisms of Rorty's reliance on sentimental education (see p. 141 of Parekh). Assess the dispute by explaining Rorty's position, Parekh's criticisms thereof, and your own take on the issues. Be sure to justify your position.
• Brown briefly criticizes Rawls's "Law of Peoples," saying that "the example he gives of a well-ordered hierarchical society is designed on such peculiar lines that it is not much use" in distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable non-liberal regimes (p. 122). Keeping in mind that this criticism was based on an earlier version of Rawls's essay, explore the issue Brown raises. What exactly is the issue the Brown says we need to face? Does Rawls make headway on it? Does he fall short in the manner Brown describes?
• Pollis and Schwab seem to take for granted that "cultural heritages" matter, or should matter, to our deliberations over human rights. Explain their position -- which may require some elaboration from one or more of the other theorists we have read -- and assess. Be sure to justify the position that you end up endorsing.
• Both Taylor and Parekh take themselves to be offering solutions our dilemmas over international human rights that are neither coercive nor mere least-common denominator solutions. Are they simply naive? Explore one or both of their positions and assess, being sure to justify your own position.