The inheritance of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of history in the conception of human rights by Norberto Bobbio

Abstract

The problem of human rights was restored by the philosophy of law within the context of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948. Norberto Bobbio addressed this question from two perspectives: one, taking up as historical and empirical problem and, other, as philosophical and theoretical problem. The historical achievements of human rights is understood by the law philosopher according to the universal kantian history. For Kant, the moral law, which is the categorical imperative, provides the grounds for the historical progressivity of humankind: the moral duty to act according to the universal maxim is what makes man to leave the state of nature and to organize autonomously in a society ruled by a perfect political constitution. The moral action enables the realization of ​​ the idea of perpetual peace. While Bobbio, whithout embarking on the conditions of moral action, assumes that there is in the human race a disposition for progress, because history is an empirical proof of this development. This is why Bobbio understood the formal acts of declaration of human rights, at the national and international level, as historical achievements that represent demonstrative signs of the existence of a universal history.