anthropological universalism

is the idea that humans are all members of the same species given under the same conditions and thus sharing the ethical position of fundamental equality and commonality.

Seyla Benhabib's coinage. She writes 'Hannah Arendt's thinking is deeply grounded in a position which I shall call 'anthropological universalism.' The Human Condition treats human beings as members of the same natural species, to whom life on earth is given under certain conditions, namely those of natality, plurality, labor, work, and action.56 This philosophical anthropology proceeds from a level of abstraction which treats all forms of cultural, social, and historical differentiation among humans as irrelevant when measured up against the 'fundamentals' of their condition. There is an implicit ethical gesture in approaching the human condition from this level of abstraction, one that proceeds from our fundamental equality and commonality as members of the same species.' (Benhabib in Villa 2000: 80-81)

anthropological universalism, n.Definitions

anthropological universalism