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L'universalité Des Droits Humains Dans Université de Montréal L’universalité des droits humains dans le contexte du pluralisme axiologique inhérent aux relations internationales : le cas du confucianisme par Marie-Josée Drolet Département de philosophie Faculté des arts et des sciences Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l’obtention du grade de docteur en philosophie Mai 2010 © Marie-Josée Drolet, 2010 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-65790-4 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-65790-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L’auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l’Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author’s permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n’y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Université de Montréal Faculté des études supérieures Cette thèse intitulée : L’universalité des droits humains dans le contexte du pluralisme axiologique inhérent aux relations internationales : le cas du confucianisme présentée par : Marie-Josée Drolet a été évaluée par un jury composé des personnes suivantes : Michel Seymour, président-rapporteur Ryoa Chung, directrice de recherche Anna Ghiglione, co-directrice Daniel Weinstock, membre du jury Shenwen Li, examinateur externe Charles Blattberg, représentant du doyen iii Résumé La démonstration qui est ici à l’œuvre s’apparente, dans une certaine mesure, à celle qu’élabore Amartya Kumar Sen dans The Argumentative Indian.1 Dans cet ouvrage, Sen discute de l’héritage intellectuel et politique de l’Inde et de la manière dont cette tradition est essentielle pour le succès de la démocratie et des politiques séculières de l’État indien. Pour notre part, nous ne nous intéressons point à l’Inde, mais à la Chine, notamment à l’héritage intellectuel, politique et moral des lettrés confucéens de l’Antiquité chinoise et à la pertinence de revisiter, aujourd’hui, la réflexion confucéenne classique pour mieux penser et fonder les droits humains en Chine. Plus précisément, notre réflexion s’inscrit au sein du débat contemporain, qui a lieu à l’échelle internationale, entourant les soi-disant valeurs asiatiques et les droits humains. Pour les partisans de la thèse des valeurs asiatiques, les valeurs asiatiques seraient associées au modèle de développement dit asiatique, lequel se distinguerait du modèle « occidental » en étant en outre réfractaire aux droits humains. Ces droits ayant une origine occidentale et étant, à maints égards, en rupture avec les valeurs asiatiques, ils ne seraient ni souhaitables en Asie (notamment en Chine) ni compatibles avec les valeurs asiatiques (spécialement avec les valeurs confucéennes). 1 Amartya Kumar Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity, New York: Picador, 2005. iv Dans notre thèse, nous réfutons ce point de vue. Par l’entremise d’une analyse de la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme de 1948 et d’un examen des quatre textes fondateurs du confucianisme classique que sont : les Entretiens (Lunyu)2, le Mencius (Mengzi), la Grande Étude (Daxue) et la Pratique du Milieu (Zhongyong)3, nous démontrons que cette compréhension des choses s’avère injustifiée. Les droits humains ne sont pas incompatibles avec les valeurs confucéennes et leur adoption est souhaitable en Asie (notamment en Chine), tout comme elle l’est en Occident. De fait, la philosophie des droits humains et la pensée confucéenne classique ont de nombreuses affinités conceptuelles, axiologiques et normatives. Loin d’être en rupture, ces univers théoriques convergent, car ils ont tous deux à cœur l’être humain, ses besoins vitaux et son épanouissement au sein de la communauté. Notre démonstration s’appuie, pour une large part, sur l’analyse d’un concept phare de la pensée éthique et politique confucéenne, soit la notion d’humanité ou du sens de l’humain (ren) ainsi que d’une autre notion qui lui est étroitement liée, soit celle de l’homme de bien ou de la personne moralement noble (junzi). Mots-clés : valeurs asiatiques, droits humains, droits de l’homme, droits de la personne, pensée confucéenne classique, confucianisme, Confucius, Mencius, humanité, sens de l’humain, ren et junzi. 2 Nous adoptons la transcription phonétique dite pinyin des caractères chinois anciens. Le pinyin a été établi par les Chinois en 1957 et demeure la transcription phonétique la plus usitée par les sinologues d’aujourd’hui. Un glossaire en annexe reprend les transcriptions citées dans cette thèse (voir l’annexe V). 3 André Lévy, Les Entretiens de Confucius et de ses disciples [Lunyu], Paris: Flammarion, 1994 et Mencius [Mengzi], Paris: You-Feng, 2003; Andrew Plaks, Ta Hsüeh and Chung Yung (The Highest Order of Cultivation and On the Practice of the Mean) [Daxue et Zhongyong], New York: Penguin Books, 2003. v Abstract The demonstration elaborated here is similar, to a certain extent, to the one developed by Amartya Kumar Sen in The Argumentative Indian.4 In his work, Sen discusses India’s intellectual and political inheritance, and the way this tradition is essential for the success of the democracy and secular politics of the Indian State. For our part, our interest lies not with India, but with China, quite particularly with the intellectual, political and moral legacy of the early Confucian scholars, and the relevancy to revisit, nowadays, Classical Confucian teachings in order to conceive and establish human rights in China. More precisely, our reflection lies within the contemporary debate, which takes place on an international scale, surrounding the so-called Asian values and human rights. For the advocates of the Asian values thesis, Asian values would be associated with the so- called Asian development model, which would distinguish itself from the « Western » model by resisting for instance human rights. These rights, having a western origin and being, in many respects, in breach with Asian values, would be neither desirable in Asia (particularly in China) nor compatible with Asian values (specifically with Confucian values). 4 Amartya Kumar Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity, New York: Picador, 2005. vi In our thesis, we refute this point of view. By the intervention of an analysis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and an examination of four texts founders of the Classical Confucianism who are: the Analects (Lunyu)5, the Mencius (Mengzi), the Great Learning (Daxue), and the Practice of the Mean (Zhongyong)6, we demonstrate that this understanding of things is unjustified. Human rights are not incompatible with Confucian values and their adoption is desirable in Asia (including China), quite as it is in Western countries. Actually, the philosophy of human rights and the Classic Confucian thought have numerous conceptual, axiological and normative affinities. Far from being in opposition, these theoretical views converge, because they both care about the human being, his vital needs, and his self-fulfillment within the community. Our demonstration leans, for the most part, on the analysis of a key concept of the Confucian ethical and political thought that is the notion of humanity, or humaneness (ren) and the closely related notion of gentleman, or morally noble person (junzi). Keywords : Asian values, Human Rights, Classical Confucian thought, Confucianism, Confucius, Mencius, humanity, benevolence, humaneness, ren, and junzi. 5 We adopt the phonetic transcription of Chinese characters called pinyin. The pinyin has been established by the Chinese in 1957 and is the transcription mostly used today by Sinologists. A glossary can be found in the appendices, which indicates cited transcriptions in this thesis (see the Appendix 5). 6 André Lévy, Les Entretiens de Confucius et de ses disciples [Lunyu], Paris: Flammarion, 1994 et Mencius [Mengzi], Paris: You-Feng, 2003; Andrew Plaks, Ta Hsüeh and Chung Yung (The Highest Order of Cultivation and On the Practice of the Mean) [Daxue et Zhongyong], New York: Penguin
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