In this highly original work, Robin Holt skillfully reveals the implications that Wittgenstein's ideas on language may have for contemporary politics of human rights and political theory.

Using Wittgenstein's late philosophy, Holt sees a shift in ontological aspect from the dominant view of the self as a rational core--individual and alone--to the self as a rational core. This perspective shows that the practices of grammar give rise to a self which is less separate entity than one which responds to the flow of circumstances. He reveals the human rights claimant as far less a lone reasoner than a grammatical player, and that human rights do not express universal ethical truths.