Contesting Human Rights Coherence: Neoliberalism as an Epoch of Brutality

Contesting Human Rights Coherence: Neoliberalism as an Epoch of Brutality

Presenter(s)

David Quick

Comments

Presentation: 2:40-3:00 p.m., Kennedy Union 331

Description

The end of the Cold War solidified modern human rights’ dependency on neoliberalism. Neoliberal capitalism fosters universal commodification, hyper-individualism, and a standard of excess. A consequence of these developments is that some persons of marginalized populations turn to crime as a means of achieving basic human rights. To particularize, the realization of the self as a rights-holding subject emerges from the brutalization and subsequent de-realization of the other. Furthermore, justifications of such actions may be coherent within the modern human rights discourse. This thesis is contextualized by the historical dynamics and present-day observations of El Salvador, which I take to represent broader global trends in the development of human rights into a discourse of apparently coherent brutality. Given this contradiction, I compare the peril and potential of reclaiming human rights as a popular discourse.

Publication Date

4-19-2023

Project Designation

Honors Thesis

Primary Advisor

Ernesto Velasquez, Miranda Hallett

Primary Advisor's Department

Philosophy

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Critical Evaluation of Our Times; Scholarship

Contesting Human Rights Coherence: Neoliberalism as an Epoch of Brutality

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