John Paul II in the Light of Thomas Aquinas

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-51
Author(s):  
Mary Christine Ugobi-Onyemere ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Human Being ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
Human Worth

In the quest to understand the meaning of existence, the human being is torn between many choices, exposed to individualism of all forms, especially atheistic perspectives. John Paul II’s personalism in the light of Thomas Aquinas’ personalistic notion of mercy suggests an alternative of meaningful living, co-existence, and holistic transcendence. John Paul’s search for the basis on which individual and social rights may grow and enhance human dignity demonstrate the ontological human worth. Following Aquinas’ model, John Paul shows that human dignity takes precedence over all options and needs preservation. Similarly, Aquinas’ classification of the human person as “rational subsistent” portrays this dignity in “effective mercy” that allows one to thrive in all kinds of existential vicissitudes. This essay explores John Paul’s personalist notion of mercy reflecting Aquinas’ model in the contemporary milieu in view of holistic existence.

scholarly journals Hombre, persona y dignidad Man, Person and Dignity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Ramos Rosete
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Saint Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
Human And Social Sciences ◽  
Social Discipline

Toda disciplina de tipo humanista o de carácter social asume como uno de sus presupuestos fundamentales una noción de lo que es el ser humano. Llevar a cabo una reflexión de tipo filosófico sobre las nociones de hombre, persona y dignidad se vuelve imprescindible para aclarar elementos antropológicos que son fundamentos teóricos de las ciencias humanas y sociales. La palabra “hombre” admite significados que en parte coinciden y en parte difieren con la noción de persona. La expresión “persona humana” no es siempre una redundancia. Siguiendo el pensamiento de Santo Tomás de Aquino, que distingue entre las nociones de hombre y persona, la subsistencia de la persona humana se vuelve fundamento de la dignidad humana y fuente de los derechos humanos.All humanist or social discipline assumes as one of its fundamental principles an idea of what human being is. Accomplishing a philosophical reflection about the man notions, person and dignity become essential to clarify antropological elements which are theorical fundaments of human and social sciences. The Word man accepts meanings that are partly the same and partly different with the concept of human person, in some way, is not totally a redundancy. Following Saint Thomas Aquinas´s thought who distinguishes between the notions of man and person, it is noted that the subsistency of the human person turns into the human dignity basis and source of all human rights.

A Importância do Trabalho para a Consolidação da Dignidade do Homem: Apontamentos sob a Perspectiva dos Direitos Sociais / The Importance of Work for the Consolidation of Dignity of Man: Points under the Perspective of Social Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janaína Machado Sturza ◽  
Aline Damian Marques
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Free Enterprise ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
The Social ◽  
Deductive Method

ResumoEste artigo tem como objetivo indicar alguns apontamentos acerca dos direitos dos trabalhadores sob a perspectiva dos direitos sociais, expressando-secomo problema as discussões sobre o exercício da cidadania e a efetivação da dignidade da pessoa humana. Dentro desta perspectiva temática, através do método hipotético-dedutivo, aborda-se sobre a positivação dos direitos dos trabalhadores na ordem constitucional representar um novo paradigma valorativo com relação ao valor social do trabalho. Nesse sentido, a livre iniciativa e o primado da dignidade da pessoa humana forneceram um arcabouço normativo cuja interpretação pelos operadores do direito permite concretizar os direitos sociais. Essa concepção pode ser definida como sendo um conjunto mínimo de direitos que cada ser humano possui, baseado na sua dignidade humana. Daí decorre a importância dos direitos humanos, dos direitos sociais e, em especial, dos direitos dos trabalhadores. AbstractThis article aims to indicate some notes about the rights of workers from the perspective of social rights, expressing as a problem the discussions about the exercise of citizenship and the realization of the dignity of the human person. Within this thematic perspective, through the hypothetical-deductive method, it is approached about the positivation of workers' rights in the constitutional order to represent a new value paradigm with respect to the social value of work. In this sense, free enterprise and the primacy of the dignity of the human person have provided a normative framework whose interpretation by lawmakers allows the realization of social rights. This conception can be defined as a minimum setof rights that each human being possesses, based on their human dignity. Hence the importance of human rights, social rights and, in particular, workers' rights.

scholarly journals Biopolitica e persona

2009 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Pessina
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Intrinsic Quality ◽  
Person Characteristics

La Dichiarazione universale dei Diritti dell’uomo del 1948 dell’ ONU ha posto in termini politici, e non soltanto filosofici o religiosi, al centro stesso della logica della cittadinanza l’affermazione della dignità umana e della libertà come qualità innate e non acquisite. Affermare che tutti gli uomini nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità significa affermare di fatto che la dignità è un attributo ontologico, una qualità intrinseca (e quindi inalienabile) dell’essere umano, al di là di differenze di sesso, di salute, di stato sociale. L’uso della nozione di persona come sinonimo delle qualità dell’adulto rischia di frantumare questo guadagno della politica. La biopolitica liberale rischia di essere fonte di discriminazioni tra gli uomini quando adotta un concetto di persona distinto da quello di essere umano. In essa rivive il dualismo antropologico proprio del platonismo. Le tesi di Hannah Arendt, di Eva Kittay e di Martha Nussabaum ci permettono di evidenziare i caratteri della persona umana sia come soggetto sia come essere corporeo diveniente nel tempo, secondo quell’intuizione che fu propria di Tommaso d’Aquino. Se si torna a pensare alla persona umana come essere umano diveniente nel tempo, è possibile salvaguardare i diritti di tutti e in particolare difendere quelle fasi della vita umana in cui la persona umana è esposta, per le fasi dello sviluppo o per la malattia, alla dipendenza. Solo così si può pensare ad una giustizia che includa tutti e tutte le fasi dell’esistenza, anche quelle segnate dalla disabilità. ---------- The United Nations Universal declaration of human rights (1948) has centred the assertion of human dignity and freedom as innate (not acquired) qualities in the logic of citizenship itself; this claim has been made not only in philosophical and religious terms, but also in political terms. Affirming that all men born free and equal for what concerns their dignity means to affirm actually that dignity is an ontological attribute, an intrinsic quality (and therefore inalienable) of the human being, beyond sex, health and social standing differences. The use of the notion of person as synonym of the qualities of adult risks to crush this gain of politics. The liberal biopolitics risks to be a source of discriminations among men when it adopts a concept of person different from that of human being. According to this view, the anthropological dualism peculiar to the Platonism lives again. Hannah Arendt, Evas Kittay and Martha Nussabaum’s thesis allow us to underline the human person characteristics as both subject and bodily being, according to the Thomas Aquinas’ intuition. If we think again human person as human being, it is possible to safeguard the everybody rights and particularly to defend those phases of human life in which human person is exposed, for the phases of the development or for the illness, to the dependence. Only in this way justice could be thought including all and all the phases of the existence, also those marked by disability.

The Human Person in Contemporary Philosophy

Philosophy ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 25 (92) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick C. Copleston
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Individual Substance ◽  
Rational Nature

I. In the early part of the sixth century a.d. Boethius defined the person as “an individual substance of rational nature” (rationalis naturae individua substantia). This definition, which became classical and was adopted by, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas, obviously implies that every human being is a person, since every human being is (to employ the philosophical terms of Boethius) an individual substance of rational nature. If one cannot be more or less of a human being, so far as “substance” is concerned, one cannot be more or less of a person. One may act as a human person ought not to act or in a way unbefitting a human person; one may even lose the normal use of one's reason; but one does not in this way become depersonalized, in the sense of ceasing to be a person. According to St. Thomas, a disembodied soul is not, strictly speaking, a person, since a disembodied soul is no longer a complete human substance; but every complete human substance is always and necessarily a person.

Is Personal Dignity Possible Only If We Live in a Cosmos?

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
John G. Brungardt ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Personal Dignity ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Catholic Church

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.

scholarly journals Evolution, Conceptualization and Legal Implications of Social Rights

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
José Luis Corona Lisboa ◽  
Marizé Damaris Mijares Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

This document constitutes a review article where the antecedents, concepts, classification and importance of fundamental social rights in the world of Law and for a contemporary society in search of the vindication of human dignity as a way of life and sustainability are exposed. The methodology used was exhaustive documentary research, where a review and classification of the most interesting articles on the subject was made, where the opinion of the cited researchers and the author's own ideas are exposed. It is concluded that fundamental social rights are essential to establish legal-social mechanisms in favor of social coexistence and the promotion of life as the backbone of society.

A Theocentric Vision of Culture in John Paul II

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90
Author(s):  
Steven J. Meyer ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Intellectual Legacy

This essay explores John Paul II’s intellectual legacy as a champion for a theocentric view of culture that emphasizes the human person and human dignity in quest for human self-realization in a community that seeks the transcendence of God. His theopocentric vision for culture is defined in the context of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. John Paul’s theological anthropology is grounded in personalism, communion, dialogue, and freedom. When God is eclipsed from human activity, particularly via the “shadow” of secularism, it engenders the crisis of culture. John Paul’s articulation of dialogue emphasizes inculturation and evangelization. His Trinitarian and social encyclicals reflect a theocentric and anthropocentric vision for culture, while his Polish and literary background show his thoughts on culture not as teachings but as integrated into his life experience. The essay concludes with reflections on Mary and the challenge of dialogue in a multicultural world.

scholarly journals A eficácia horizontal direta dos direitos fundamentais no âmbito das relações de trabalho: o papel da negociação coletiva na implementação de ações afirmativas da dignidade do trabalhador

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-244
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Goldschmidt ◽  
Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Labor Negotiations

Resumo: Neste artigo analisa-se a implementação de ações afirmativas pelas empresas empregadoras e sindicatos obreiros, mediante a negociação coletiva como forma de concretização da dignidade do trabalhador sob as perspectivas objetiva e subjetiva dos direitos fundamentais sociais. Nessa tarefa, apresenta-se o conceito de direitos fundamentais e sua relação com a dignidade da pessoa humana. Na sua segunda parte, analisam-se as teorias sobre a eficácia dos direitos fundamentais, em suas dimensões vertical e horizontal. Em seguida, apresenta-se o conceito de ações afirmativas da dignidade da pessoa humana como medidas de concretização da dignidade, para, ao final, apresentar exemplos de normas coletivas que afirmam, concretamente, a dignidade do trabalhador, no âmbito da eficácia horizontal dos direitos fundamentais nas relações entre particulares de forma direta e imediata. A metodologia do estudo é a analítica-interpretativa de investigação bibliográfica e documental. Por método, adotou-se o indutivo.Palavras-chave: Eficácia horizontal. Direitos fundamentais. Ações afirmativas. Negociação coletiva. Dignidade humana. Abstract: The article analyzes the implementation of affirmative actions by employers’ and workers’ unions, through collective bargaining as a way of achieving the dignity of workers under the objective and subjective perspectives of fundamental social rights. In this task, it presents the concept of fundamental rights and their relationship with the dignity of the human person. In its second part, it analyzes the theories on the effectiveness of fundamental rights, in their vertical and horizontal dimensions. Then, it presents a concept of affirmative actions of the dignity of the human person as measures for the realization of dignity, in order to present examples of collective norms that concretely affirm the dignity of the worker within the framework of the horizontal effectiveness of fundamental rights in relations between private individuals directly and immediately. The methodology of the study is the analytical-interpretative of bibliographic and documentary research. As a method, the inductive was adopted.Keywords: Horizontal efficacy. Fundamental rights. Affirmative actions. Labor negotiations. Human dignity.

The Immortality of Man

1941 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-427
Author(s):  
Jacques Maritain
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Soft Or ◽  
The World

Let us think of the human being, not in an abstract and general way, but in the most concrete possible, the most personal fashion. Let us think of this certain old man we have known for years in the country, —this old farmer with his wrinkled face, his keen eyes which have beheld so many harvests and so many earthly horizons, his long habits of patience and suffering, courage, poverty and noble labor, a man perhaps like those parents of a great living American statesman whose photographs appeared some months ago in a particularly moving copy of a weekly magazine. Or let us think of this certain boy or this girl who are our relatives or our friends, whose everyday life we well know, and whose loved appearance, whose soft or husky voice is enough to rejoice our hearts. Let us remember—remember in our heart—a single gesture of the hand, or the smile in the eyes of one we love. What treasures on earth, what masterpieces of art or of science, could pay for the treasures of life, feeling, freedom and memory, of which this gesture, this smile is the fugitive expression? We perceive intuitively, in an indescribable not inescapable flash, that nothing in the world is more precious than one single human being. I am well aware how many difficult questions come to mind at the same time and I shall come back to these difficulties, but for the present I wish only to keep in mind this simple and decisive intuition, by means of which the incomparable value of the human person is revealed to us. Moreover, St. Thomas Aquinas warns us that the Person is what is noblest and most perfect in the whole of nature.

scholarly journals El entendimiento agente según Tomás de Aquino

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Juan F. SELLÉS
Keyword(s):  
Saint Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Knowledge

The "intellectus agens" is the zenith of the theory of the human knowledge according to Saint Thomas Aquinas. It is personal in each human being: one with the being of the human person. Separated from the body, without mixture with it, impassible and always in act. Innate cognoscitive light. It proceeds from God, and from Him it participates natural and supernaturally. Through the "intellectus agens" we are free and responsible. It permits to know everything, because it activates the different human cognoscitive faculties. It uses the innate habits as instruments. It is perpetual, but after this life it will no know as now.

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