Human Rights and the Care of the Self.

• Date: 01 August 2019
• Author: Muhammad, Patricia M.

Lefebvre, Alexandre, Human Rights and the Care of the Self. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2018. x + 264 pages. Hardcover, $26.95.

Alexandre Lefebvre, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, undertakes two primary approaches concerning the necessity of human rights in the modern age; one based on an individual level and the other based in society. Individually, human rights are the primary avenue through which a person cultivates and protects him or herself against and within the public at large. According to Lefebvre, the more each person uses the ideology of human rights to cultivate, and eventually manifest the best version of her or himself, the more support for the rule of law in a democratic society. However, Lefebvre indicates that the surge of western individualism can serve as an obstacle to such development, and is exactly the plague that Alexis de Tocqueville lambasted. In contrast, the author asserts that the pursuit of human rights should serve as a constructive measure which ultimately benefits individuals, or members of vulnerable populations, under the rule of law.

Professor Lefebvre delves into the ideals of philosopher Michel Foucalt, who defined morality based in moral code and moral conduct. According to Foucalt, moral codes are values recommended to individuals in civil society...