The Coherence of Human Rights' Foundations

Abstract

To provide foundations for human rights is to prove coherence between focus (what we are talking about when we talk about human rights) and form (in what way we think human rights have a claim to necessity). This paper describes some permissible combinations of form and focus. This approach to foundations can also be shown to reconcile two propositions that might otherwise be assumed to be contradictory. On the one hand, we should reject the notion of a ‘definitive’ justification. On the other, we should admit the intelligibility of strong, moral, foundations for human rights.