Abstract

After sketching the three basic types or generations of human rights recognized by the international community, the author explicates their principal conceptual-historical features in four theses concerning socially guaranteed priority interests; hermeneutical interaction; levels of intercultural and intracultural justification; theory-neutrality; he then explores yet further implications of those features. The article concludes by sketching alternative conceptions of the levels of human rights justification, relating these to recent philosophical positions on the prospects for a common morality.