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Full Idea
The force of a claim for a human right would indeed be seriously undermined if it were possible to show that it is unlikely to survive open public scrutiny.
Gist of Idea
A human right is not plausible if public scrutiny might reject it
Source
Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice [2009], 17 'Scrutiny')
Book Ref
Sen, Amartya: 'The Idea of Justice' [Penguin 2010], p.387
A Reaction
This is a public aspect of Scanlon's 'contractualist' approach to ethics. You can hardly disagree with the idea, though anti-racist legislation in a strongly racist society might be a good test case.
Related Idea
Idea 20992 Right and wrong concerns what other people cannot reasonably reject [Scanlon]
| 6032 | Right actions, once done, are those with a reasonable justification [Sext.Empiricus] |
| 15671 | Move from individual willing of a general law, to willing norms agreed with other people [Habermas] |
| 20992 | Right and wrong concerns what other people cannot reasonably reject [Scanlon] |
| 21005 | A human right is not plausible if public scrutiny might reject it [Sen] |