Do we as humans have no shared standards by which we can understand each other? Do we truly have divergent views about what constitutes good and evil, harm and welfare, dignity and humiliation, or is there some underlying commonality that wins out? These questions show up everywhere, from the debate over female circumcision to the UN Declaration of Human Rights. They become ever more pressing in an age of mass immigration, religious extremism and the rise of identity politics. So by what right do we judge particular practices as barbaric? Who are the real barbarians?
This provocative book takes an enlightening look at what we believe, why we believe it and whether there really is an irreparable moral discord between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
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Steven Lukes is a professor of sociology at New York University. He has written many books about political and social theory, including Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work and the seminal Power: A Radical View, recently released in a new edition 30 years after it was first published.