Resisting "Dull and Torpid" Assent: Returning to the Debate Over the Foundations of Human Rights

This article examines a number of the more well-known theories of the foundations of human rights that have been developed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and adds to this discussion the voice of a less well-known theorist of human rights, Hannah Arendt. The traditional theories of the foundations of human rights are divided into two camps, the essentialists and the anti-essentialists, and the benefits and limitations of each camp are analyzed. The author then articulates Arendt's view of human rights and situates her voice within the contemporary debate on human rights.