Como contar a história dos Direitos Humanos na Europa. Algumas questões metodológicas

Abstract

The aim of this text is to debate some methodological issues that arise when thinking about the history of human rights. By using examples coming from different historical contexts, from the Antiquity to the twentieth century, the text intends to explore two central ideas. On the one hand, to question the idea of a transtemporal nature of the concept of human rights. In opposition to that idea, the text intends to stress that historical context existed where universal/human rights could hardly be conceptualized. The other idea has to do with the improbability of carrying on a linear and continuous history of human rights without incurring in anachronism and retro projection. Another target of the text is to identify some historiographical debates on the issue and different approaches to it.