Health and human rights: Contributions of hermeneutics to a necessary dialogue

ABSTRACT

The relationship between health and human rights has gained growing importance, whether in activist agendas or in governments strategies to face the challenging scenarios of global public health. However, there are important gaps to be filled so that the articulation between these two fields develops its full potential, and the question of knowledge plays a key role in this regard. This study aims at examining the possibilities and challenges of integrating a human rights perspective into the construction and validation of health knowledge, based on the contribution of authors from various theoretical traditions that have discussed the so-called ‘hermeneutic turn’ in contemporary philosophy and science. The thesis developed is that recognizing the place of hermeneutics in human rationality and its consequences for understanding various forms of knowledge and their respective practical meanings is a fundamental step towards an effective articulation between the fields of health and human rights. I argue that the hermeneutic rescue of the value of practical reason can enhance emancipatory reconstructions in the exercise of cognitive-instrumental rationality in the field of health.

KEYWORDS:

• Health and human rights
• hermeneutics
• communicative reason
• practical reason

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CNPq: [303244/2018-6].