Human rights and responsibilities. In search of a new social contract

The name of Aleida Assman is known to anyone who at least briefly touches the field of Memory Studies. Each of her books is eagerly awaited, as it becomes an event. For Assman, the past / memory is not a field of dissection of the dead, but a space for finding answers to questions about the nature of social life, about the values that underlie the phenomenon of civilization. The catastrophic reality of the twentieth century, the challenges of modern civilization with the outline of new lines of world confrontation, the eclipse of the image of the future and attempts to escape into the past - these are the issues that Assman considers to understand what modern Europe is. In the conditions of intolerance of today's challenges, the researcher invites to thoughtful and careful elaboration of ethical principles - and seeks in history the starting point of the ethical solution that allows the phenomenon of human life together. Life together is fragile, it is constantly balancing on the brink of disaster. Carefully drawn red lines are washed away by waves of violence. After guiding the reader through the points of perception and understanding of ethical decisions, Assman immerses himself in the essence of the phenomenon of human rights, in order to bring the reader to the need to understand another "whale" of modern civilization - the concept of responsibility. Not only rights but also responsibilities. In today's world, which is so prone to chaos, only the constant nurturing of living conditions returns space for hope.