Universals of Human Nature

principles of our intellectual and moral nature remain a considerable mystery, but we can hardly doubt their existence, or their central role in our intellectual and moral lives. I am aware that this is conventionally denied, but not credibly, in my opinion. The topics are far too broad to address within the confi nes of this paper, so I would like to keep to two core aspects: human language, which is regarded by many paleoanthropologists as the factor that stimulated ‘the great leap forward’; and our conception of fundamental human rights. In both domains we should, I think, be seeking universals, that is, elements of our common human endowment that provide humans with specifi c cognitive capacities and with the foundations for moral judgment. There is a long and interesting history of thought about possible links between these domains, but they remain speculative and poorly understood. The only way to proceed, as far as I can see, is to say a few words about universality in language and in human rights, with barely a hint about the possible connections, a problem still very much on the horizon of inquiry.