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Chapter 23 - Belief in Human Rights: An Opportunity for Cross-Cultural Cognitive Science

from Environmental Effects on Beliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

By
Jordan Kiper
Edited by
Julien Musolino ,
Joseph Sommer  and
Pernille Hemmer
Julien Musolino
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Joseph Sommer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Pernille Hemmer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

Whether it concerns moral attitudes across cultures or claims about what people deserve, human rights, in theory and practice, involves beliefs. Yet, inquiries about belief, such as community-wide dispositions toward human rights claims and (more importantly for legal and cultural systems of rights) what it means to support human rights and how that support is increasing worldwide, are often marginalized. That marginalization is due, in part, to the reluctance of some social scientists to consider the concepts of universality or belief, since these have often been considered western concepts that are wrongfully imposed on others. As this chapter shows, however, the prospective universality of human rights, or what advocates typically describe as an overlapping consensus, remains a critical issue in the field. Moreover, skepticism about belief across cultures is usually grounded in misconceptions about the very concept of belief. All of this entails that belief in human rights is an important topic that is open to research in the brain and behavioral sciences. This chapter considers how human rights beliefs relate to the transdisciplinary study of belief and offers opportunities for cross-cultural cognitive science.

Keywords

anthropologybeliefcross-cultural cognitive sciencehuman rightsoverlapping consensusuniversality
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cognitive Science of Belief
A Multidisciplinary Approach
 , pp. 515 - 535
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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