西方人权观的文化释读

从文化核心价值理念的视角去解读西方人权观的基本要素,可以解释西方近代人权观念为什么是以抽象意义的人为基础,为什么将人的生命、自由、财产等设定为自然权利,为什么坚持个人中心主义和国家工具主义观念的问题。通过对古希腊罗马时期个人权利价值取向的萌芽、自由观念的孕育、斯多葛学派的自然法思想以及近代自然权利学说和社会契约论等方面的探讨,可以认为西方人权观念的产生和发展是西方对人的自身本质认识的不断深化过程,是西方有关人的各种价值理念等长期历史积淀和传承的过程。美国革命和法国革命时期提出的各种人权主张及其作出的相关制度设计是西方文化所蕴涵的核心价值理念在具体实践过程中的体现,标志着西方近代人权观念的产生。

The interpretation of western human rights notions from the perspective of culture

The paper focuses on the interpretation of western human rights notion from the perspective of culture. It tries to answer why western human rights notion is based on an abstract man, why men's life, liberty and property are taken as natural rights and why it holds individuals as the end and the state as an instrument to protect them. Based on the analysis on the germination of the values of individual rights and liberty, natural law of Stoicism in ancient Greek and Rome, and natural rights and social contract theories, the paper holds that the development of western human rights notions is a deepening understanding of men's essence, and also a process of accumulating and passing of western values ideas of man. The proclamation of human rights and the related system devising in American and French revolutions show the core values and ideas in western culture and indicate the birth of western human rights.