This study deals essentially with the problem of how to assess the strength of certain global sceptical arguments, such as, the infinite regress argument. The thesis consists of a critical discussion of four prominent theories of knowledge in the current epistemological debate. The discussed theories are: Laurence Bon Jour's coherence theory of knowledge, Robert Nozick's tracking-the-truth theory, Barry Stroud's Cartesian theory of knowledge and Edward Craig's contextualism. The critical discussion results in a proposal of an alternative theory of knowledge named the Best-Available Method-theory (or the so-called BAM theory). This theory has the advantage of not vitiating our ordinary intuitions regarding the concept of knowledge. The BAM theory also aims to explain the inclinations towards and against global sceptical challenges. It is stated that there are certain serious problems in challenging some of the sceptical philosopher's conclusions. Further, the BAM theory explains the attractions and the drawbacks of major, rival theories in the epistemological debate, such as foundationalism, coherentism and internalism, externalism. The upshot of the critical discussion could be seen as an ecumenical theory of knowledge.
The late breakthrough of human rights educaton. Human Rights as they are formulated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 have become a moral lingua franca in the words of the Canadian scholar Michael Ignatieff. We have also witnessed a so-called Human Rights Revolution in the post war period with more declarations and conventions concerning vulnerable groups such as children, women, indigenous populations and disabled people. Stronger mechanisms for implementations such as Human Rights Courts for example the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the International Criminal Court in the Hague have been introduced. In spite of this “human rights revolution”, human rights education – both at school and university level, has lagged behind. It is only in the later decades that serious attempts have been made to introduce human rights in curricula and in various subjects in the schools in several countries around the world. The same general phenomenon applies to many universities. This article analyzes human rights education from a global perspective and presents an explanation why the processes of formulating and implementing such an education have been so slow. A further question that will be addressed is how a human rights education can be defined and practiced - especially at various levels in schools.
Human Rights as they are formulated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 have become a moral lingua franca. We have also witnessed a so called Human Rights Revolution in the post war period with more declarations and conventions concerning vulnerable groups such as children, women, indigenous populations and disabled people. Stronger mechanisms for implementations such as Human Rights Courts (for example the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg) and the International Criminal Court in Hague have been introduced. In spite of this “Human Rights Revolution” the education –both at school and university level– concerning human rights have lagged behind. It is only in the later decade that serious attempts have been made to introduce hu-man rights in curriculums and in various subjects in the schools in several coun-tries around the world. The same phenomenon applies to many universities. This article tries to analyze this standing of human rights education from a global perspective and understand why the processes of formulating and implementing such an education have been so slow. A further question that will be raised is how a human rights education can be defined and practiced especially at various levels in school.