Introduction

Abstract

In this chapter I provide the main reasons to take a new look at the foundations of human rights. The question on the foundations of human rights immediately touches the question on the foundations of human dignity, which is understood as the foundation of human rights according to international law. But what is the basis of human dignity cannot be answered by any legal text, it’s a philosophical issue. I argue to take a new look at this issue on the basis of two frameworks of the contemporary analytic philosophy: the project of naturalisation and the research on the relation of metaphysical grounding. In such a way, this chapter outlines the background for the main claim of the book, which is that human rights are grounded in human nature.