Human dignity as a social and legal value

Abstract

The author review almost inflationary and vague use of the concept human dignity. It is more regulatory principle, than general notion with standardized meaning. Its philosophical, theological, legal and bioethical dimensions are emphasized. The principle of human dignity is constitutive not only for the moral but also for modern society, the foundation of both natural and positive law, as well as the center of the bioethical debate. Versus its earlier aristocratic use, in this article are analyzed his philosophical meanings as humanity , especially the human, reasonable, free self-determination of man ( Cicero, Aquinas , Mirandola, Kant ) and democratic foundational meanings in many international documents and constitutions of some countries in which are occasionally in their very beginning. There are investigated its internal and outer dimensions (natural and social conditions). Legal guarantees for the human rights are essential for the realization of human dignity, but the constraint inherent to the law may jeopardize it as a legal value. The right to a sentence can be seen as a restoration of human dignity. There are a natural dignity, equal for all people, and social dignity, in which are still visible differences and inequalities. In the ecological and bioethical debates, appear critiques of the concept of human dignity as an anthropocentric value. Some authors began to speak about the dignity of all Created, the dignity of nature and law of nature. As a new paradigm, the dignity structures to qualitative different way our view of the world - state and law, all society, but also of man and nature.