Human Dignity and the Objectification of the Human Being

2004 ◽  
pp. 537-601
Author(s):  
J. J. Venter
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
John G. Brungardt ◽  

The Catholic Church has increasingly invoked the principle of human dignity as a way to spread the message of the Gospel in the modern world. Catholic philosophers must therefore defend this principle in service to Catholic theology. One aspect of this defense is how the human person relates to the universe. Is human dignity of a piece with the material universe in which we find ourselves? Or is our dignity alien in kind to such a whole? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between? The metaphysics of creation properly locates the human being in the universe as a part, ordered to the universe’s common good of order and ultimately to God. Human dignity is possible only in a cosmos; that this is concordant with modern scientific cosmology is briefly defended in the conclusion.


2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-212
Author(s):  
Wojciech Bołoz

In contemporary bioethics dominate two trends dealing with two basic ethical solutions. First of them is utilitarianism concerning utility as a criterion of judging between what is right and what is wrong. The second trend applies to human rights and human dignity, which are to be obeyed without any exceptions. Utilitarianism protects the strong and prosperous people in society and excludes those who are weak and not capable of independent life. The concept of human dignity protects each and every human being including the weakest ones. It is therefore characterized by real humanitarianism. In addition, it has one more outstanding virtue; in the contemporary world, it is the most widespread and understandable ethical code. It enables people of different civilizations to communicate with understandable ethical language. In the world constantly undergoing global processes, it is a great value. Although there are a number of discussions concerning the way of understanding human dignity and human rights, their universal and ethical meaning; there are certain international acts of law concerning biomedicine that support the concept of human dignity as the most adequate concept for the contemporary bioethics. As an example, the European Convention on Bioethics can be taken. The article includes the most significant topics concerning understanding, history, and application of law and human dignity in bioethics.


2006 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Dalla Torre

Dopo essersi rilevato il fenomeno della rinascita del fatto religioso nell’odierna società secolarizzata, grazie anche al massiccio fenomeno immigratorio, si descrive l’impatto del pluralismo etnico-religioso sulle tradizionali realtà degli ordinamenti giuridici statali; impatto reso ancora più problematico per l’ascesa di nuovi poteri, in particolare quello tecnico-scientifico, insofferenti ad una eteroregolamentazione non solo sul piano etico, ma anche sul piano giuridico. Si mette quindi in evidenza una crescente ambiguità che investe la biogiuridica: da un lato la nuova esigenza di riconoscere il rivendicato “diritto alla diversità” da parte delle diverse formazioni etnico-religiose; dall’altro l’esigenza di una regolamentazione giuridica uniforme a garanzia dell’ordinata convivenza attorno ad una scala valoriale che abbia nella “vita” il bene centrale ed ultimo da salvaguardare. Tra le conclusioni cui si giunge è innanzitutto quella per cui la pacifica convivenza in una società multietnica e multireligiosa può essere assicurata, nel rispetto delle diverse tradizioni e culture, attraverso il ricorso a moderati e saggi riconoscimenti di spazio al diritto personale all’interno degli ordinamenti statali, ma nei limiti rigorosi posti dalle esigenze di tutela della dignità umana. Ciò tocca anche la questione dei “nuovi poteri” che, nel contesto di una società globalizzata, impongono una rielaborazione dell’idea di diritto che, partendo dal quadro di un sistema di fonti che tende sempre più ad essere organizzato non secondo gerarchia ma secondo competenza, si ispiri al principio del riconoscimento dell’essere umano nella sua dignità, indipendentemente dall’appartenenza etnico-religiosa. Infine si mette in evidenza l’inaccettabilità di un “diritto debole”, solo procedimentale, perché sostanziale negazione della funzione stessa del diritto, che è quella di prevenire e/o dirimere i conflitti tra interessi in gioco e, quindi, i contrasti tra le parti della società, difendendo nel rapporto i soggetti più deboli; così come si mette in evidenza che il prezioso bene della laicità dello Stato non è – come invece spesso si ritiene – salvaguardato da un “diritto debole”, ma solo da un diritto giusto. ---------- After being noticed the phenomenon of the rebirth of the religious fact in today’s secularized society, it is described also the impact of the ethnic-religious pluralism on the traditional realities of the government juridical arrangements; impact made even more problematic for the ascent of new powers, particularly that technical-scientific, impatient to an heteroregulation not only on the ethical plan, but also on the juridical plan. It is put therefore in evidence an increasing ambiguity that invests the biojuridical: from one side the new demand to recognize the vindicated “law to difference” from different ethnic-religious formations; from the other the demand of a uniform juridical regulation to guarantee of the orderly cohabitation around to a scale of value that has in “life” central and ultimate good to safeguard. Between the conclusions which the author comes it is, first of all, that for which the peaceful cohabitation in a multiethnic and multireligious society can be assured, in the respect of the different traditions and cultures, through the recourse to moderate and wise recognition of space to the personal law into the government arrangements, but in the rigorous limits set by the demands of guardianship of human dignity. This also touches the matter of new powers that, in the contest of globalization, impose a new elaboration of the idea of law that, departing from the picture of a system of sources that extends more and more to not be organized according to hierarchy but according to competence, inspire to the principle of the recognition of the human being in its dignity, independently from the ethnic-religious affiliation. Finally it is put in evidence the unacceptability of a “weak law”, just procedural, as substantial negation of the law function itself, which is that to prevent and/or to settle the conflicts between affairs at stake and, therefore, contrasts between the parts of the society, defending in the relationship the weakest subjects; as it is evidenced that the precious good of laity of the State is not - like instead it is often considered - safeguarded by a weak law, but only by a correct law.


2018 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 45-61
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Giełda

HUMAN DIGNITY IN ENVIRONMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION — SELECTED ISSUESEnvironment of public administration is built by many subjective and objective elements among which the most important is human being and communities created by him/her. They are the reason of public administration existence which is establish in order to fulfill social needs resulting from the people’s coexistence in communities. The concept of human dignity, consider as normative rule or value which always should be taken into consideration by public administration, is insep­arably linked with the concept of human being treated as an individual or as apart of community. Public administration cannot act where human dignity is violated and is obliged to act when human dignity is in danger. Protection of human dignity should always be fundamental feature of public administration activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo J. Modise

The image of God has been vandalised by racism in South Africa, which it is argued is a sin. It is an ecclesiological responsibility to address the vandalised image of God in South Africa. The author will argue from the human relationship as a build-up to the Theanthropocosmic principle. This principle denotes the relationship between God (theos) the human being (anthropos) and the physical-organic environment (cosmos). For addressing this responsibility, the grounds of internal racism are exposed using a philosophical interpretation. According to the author, there is a correlation between sin and racism. The latter is viewed as multidimensional from a Theanthropocosmic perspective.The theoretical framework will be within hamartiology and soteriology. The philosophical interpretation will be utilised to broaden the understanding of the theological problem of the vandalised image of God.


Author(s):  
Fereniki Panagopoulou-Koutnatzi

This chapter describes the ethical and deontological adventures of the unborn child with regard to abortion. According to Sumerian law, if a man strikes a free-born woman causing her to lose her unborn child, he must pay ten shekels1 of silver as a fine for her loss, whereas if a man deliberately strikes the wife of a free-born citizen causing her to lose her unborn child, he must pay a fine of one-third of a mina of silver. Nowadays, one should underline that every human being at the very beginning of life and even before birth treads a long and adventurous road filled with moral dilemmas and legal repercussions. The fact that this refers to the life of every person-to-be is not under question in this treatise. Likewise, the authors assume that every human is the bearer of human dignity.


Author(s):  
Dennis J. Baker

In this paper I aim to examine the objective limitations of consent as a defense to criminal harmdoing. This paper starts by briefly outlining the idea of objective morality (critical morality) as the proper basis for criminalization decisions and argues that there are also objective rather than mere conventional reasons (positive morality) for limiting the scope of consent as a defense in the criminal law. The idea of consent is in itself an objective reason for excusing wrongful harmdoing to others. However, it can be overridden by other objective considerations of greater importance. In this paper, I argue that it is only wrongful harmdoing that is criminalizable, as we do not criminalize mere accidents. Furthermore, I argue that a person can as an exercise of her personal autonomy consent to certain harms. But I note that there is a crucial difference between waiving rights that are grounded in an exercise of personal autonomy and waiving rights that violate a person's human dignity: rational autonomy. I conclude that regardless of consent, certain grave harms violate a person's dignity as a human being and therefore are wrongful and criminalizable.


2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah al-Ahsan

Human dignity is the recognition and respect of human need, desire and expectation one individual by another. This recognition is indispensable because no human being survives alone: Human dignity creates the foundation of society and civilization. Our knowledge of history suggests that religious ideas have provided this basic foundation of civilization. Describing the first recognized civilization in history one historian says, “Religion permeated Sumerian civic life.” According to another historian, “Religion dominated, suffused, and inspired all features of Near Eastern society—law, kingship, art, and science.” Based on these observations while defining civilization Samuel Huntington asserts, “Religion is a central defining characteristic of civilizations.”In Islam, the Qur’an declares that: “We have bestowed dignity on the progeny of Adam.” The verse then continues to remind the whole of mankind of God's special favor unto them with physical and intellectual abilities, natural resources and with superiority over most other creatures in the world. This dignity is bestowed through God's act of creating Adam and breathing into him His Own Spirit. Since all human beings originated from Adam and his spouse, every single human being possesses this dignity regardless of color, race, religion and tribe. The whole of mankind, as khalīfah (vice-resenf) is responsible for establishing peace on earth through divinely ordained values such as amānah (trust), ‘adālah (justice) and shūra (consultation).


Author(s):  
Andika Fawri

Human dignity is a human nobility that distinguishes it from other creatures on earth. The purpose of writing this article is to describe human dignity in the perspective of counseling. The method used in this writing is literature study. The data collection technique in this article is the documentation technique. The data analysis technique used is content analysis technique. Based on the results of the author's search, humans are not born in an empty state where humans are given a noble spirit by God, the proof of which is the Qur'an as in its content, humans are created in the best possible shape and perfect. Human dignity is influenced by the conditions chosen by the human being, but if it is taken from the word nobility, humans must do and become a better person.


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