The Politics of the Human

The  human is a central reference point for human rights. But who or what is  that human? And given its long history of exclusiveness, when so many  of those now recognised as human were denied the name, how much  confidence can we attach to the term? This book works towards a sense of  the human that does without substantive accounts of 'humanity' while  also avoiding their opposite – the contentless versions that deny  important differences such as race, gender and sexuality. Drawing  inspiration from Hannah Arendt's anti-foundationalism, Phillips rejects  the idea of 'humanness' as grounded in essential characteristics we can  be shown to share. She stresses instead the human as claim and  commitment, as enactment and politics of equality. In doing so, she  engages with a range of contemporary debates on human dignity, humanism,  and post-humanism, and argues that none of these is necessary to a  strong politics of the human.