Richard Rorty a lidská práva
Richard Rorty and Human Rights

Summary/Abstract: The author in his text examines a contribution of the American philosopher Richard Rorty to the theory of human rights. Author's attention is mostly dedicated to the analysis of three important parts of Rorty's efforts – refusal of the idea of human rights founding and its substitution for the development of human rights culture, formulation of the concept of sentimental education and finally, elimination of questions influenced by metaphysics from our contemporary discussion about human rights. The author endeavours to conceptualize these problems in a wider context of Rorty's philosophy and therefore he deals with some general aspects of Rorty's thinking. The author examines for example Rorty's emphasis on the concept of effectiveness, his perspectionism or his opinions on a human nature. The author also asks the question if Rorty's attitude is still philosophical. In his contribution the author dedicates attention to one of the critical commentaries on Rorty's opinions, namely Patrick Hayden's objections to the concept of sentimental education. The author's conclusion is that Rorty's attitude bears a lot of useful and valuable impulses to us but only under the condition that this attitude is recognized as peripheral. On the other hand, the author means that it is necessary to be aware of this attitude in case it should be recognized as predominant, because Rorty excessively underestimates the role of rationality in our discourse.

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