论基于基本需要的底限人权——戴维·米勒对罗尔斯人权观的改造

Minimal Human Rights Based on Basic Needs: David Miller Reframed John Rawls's Human Rights Ideas

约翰·罗尔斯在《万民法》中所提出作为调节多元世界社会关系的底限人权引起了政治哲学家们关于人权理论的纷争。英国政治哲学家戴维·米勒继承并进一步改造了罗尔斯的底限人权观。在论证过程中,米勒采用了人道主义策略以取代罗尔斯的重叠共识策略,并把人类的共同特征、基本需要作为人权的立论基础,同时引入可实践性原则划定底限人权的上限范围。因此,与罗尔斯政治自由主义人权观相比,米勒基于基本需要的人权观不仅在理论上而且在实践上都具有更强的可辩护性。不过,他的这种人权观存在着一些问题,如"基本需要"概念的明晰、"最低限度"的界定、"权利清单"的划定、"人权优先性"的确立等尚待更加充分的说明。

John Rawls’s ideas of Minimal Human Rights proposed in The Law of Peoples for the purpose of adjusting the relationships of world society caused the disputes of the political philosophers on theories of human right ideas. David Miller,British political theorist,inherited and reframed Rawls’s ideas. In the process of arguments,Miller adapted the humanitarianism strategy in place of Rawls’s strategy of overlapping consensus, took the human’s basic needs as the fundamentals of human rights,and set the practice feasibility as a principle of human rights. Therefore,compared with Rawlsian political liberalism,Miller’ s human right ideas based on basic needs is more justifiable theoretically. However,there are some problems with the concepts of basic needs,minimum margin of decent life,right lists,and priority of human rights. In this regard,further discussion is necessary.