Abstract
Today, through the United Nations and its half century of enactments, an impressive body of human rights doctrine is embodied in international law. This is in sharp contrast to the situation fifty years ago when there was no body of international human rights law. Having come this far legally, why then should one still be concerned with the philosophic foundations of such international human rights law? To philosophize, Plato taught, is to come to know oneself. Others say that the special function of philosophy is to deepen our understanding of truth. Still others see the philosopher as a judge, assessing the varieties of human experience and pronouncing on the claim to knowledge.1 Yet, still more reasons exist for exploring the philosophic underpinnings of human rights law. First, one's own attitudes toward the subject of international human rights law are likely to remain obscure unless one understands the philosophies that shape them.2 Piaget's statement that morality is the logic of action contains a striking insight.
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