Beyond Human Rights - Alain De Benoist

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Résumé :
Beyond Human Rights is the second in an ongoing series of English translations of Alain de Benoist's works to be published by Arktos. Alain de Benoist begins Beyond Human Rights with an examination of the origins of the concept of 'human rights' in European Antiquity, in which rights were defined in terms of the individual's relationship to his community, and were understood as being exclusive to that community alone. This changed with the coming of Christianity to Europe, after which rights were redefined as a universal concept derived from the idea of each individual as the possessor of a soul that is transcendent and independent of any social identity. This culminated in the Enlightenment belief in 'natural rights', which found its practical expression in the doctrines emerging from the American and French revolutions, in which all individuals were said to possess rights simply by virtue of the fact of their being human. In turn, laws issued by the State came to be viewed as negative impositions upon the naturally independent individual. De Benoist deconstructs this idea and shows how the myth of a 'natural man' who possesses rights independent of his community is indefensible, and how this conception of rights has, in modern times, led to their use as a weapon by stronger nations to bludgeon those weaker states which do not conform to the Western liberal-democratic form of rights, as we have recently seen in action in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. As such, he presents us with a crucial critique of one of the major issues of our time.

Alain de Benoist is the leading philosopher behind the European 'New Right' movement (a label which de Benoist himself rejects, perceiving himself to not fit into the usual Left/Right dichotomy), a metapolitical school of thought which he helped to found in France in 1968 with the establishment of GRECE (Research and Study Group for European Civilisation). He continues to write and give lectures and interviews. He lives in Paris. The Arktos edition of his book, The Problem of Democracy, was also published in 2011.

Biographie:
Alain de Benoist is the leading thinker of the European 'New Right' movement, a school of political philosophy founded in France in 1968 with the establishment of GRECE (Research and Study Group for European Civilisation), a metapolitical school of thought. To this day he remains its primary representative, even while rejecting the label 'New Right' for himself, perceiving himself as falling outside the usual Left/Right dichotomy. An ethnopluralist defender of cultural uniqueness and integrity, he has argued for the right of Europeans to retain their identity in the face of multiculturalism, and he has opposed immigration, while still preferring the preservation of native cultures over the forced assimilation of immigrant groups. Unfounded accusations of radicalism have haunted Benoist throughout his career, but have done nothing to reduce his productivity and drive. He has authored dozens of books and essays on topics such as immigration, religion, philosophy and political theory. In 1978, he received the Grand Prix de l'Essai from the Acad?mie Fran?aise for his book Vu de droite (View from the Right).
He is also the editor-in-chief of the journals Nouvelle Ecole and Krisis, and his works have been published in a variety of journals such as Mankind Quarterly, Telos, The Scorpion, The Occidental Quarterly, and Tyr. Over the past forty years he has had a tremendous impact on the philosophical and ideological understanding of the European political situation. Arktos has previously published his books The Problem of Democracy (2011), Beyond Human Rights (2011), Manifesto for a European Renaissance (2012), Carl Schmitt Today (2013), On the Brink of the Abyss (2015), The Indo-Europeans (2016), and Runes and the Origins of Writing (2018). He continues to write and give lectures and interviews. He lives in Paris.