The second key was to notice that the term person has connotations lacking in the term individual , and that such terms as social and community attach to many other referents besides state . But I believe the metaphor taken from music better expresses the way in which each principle of the code is intended to express harmonies, echoes, and motifs amplified by later principles. The force of the whole adds considerable meaning to each part. The final task was to formulate each proposition of this code in a form most likely both to attract universal consent and to hold up under the pressure of events. Practicality in both senses was the key.
Concrete prescriptions have a more practical ring than theoretical affirmations.
This focus on practicality commended itself to diplomats, political leaders, and the public itself, and it was greatly strengthened by recent horrific memories and still-abiding fears. Let us look more closely at the solutions to these philosophical logjams at the United Nations. In those years, there were not quite sixty countries in the United Nations, compared to today s 185. On this commission the philosopher Jacques Maritain did especially useful work on the particular problem of pluralism. That work was in turn appropriated by those working on the Universal Declaration.