Human Nature, Dignity and Human Rights

Edmund Ryden SJ

《Fu Jen International Religious Studies》 7卷1期 (2013/06) Pp. 83-112

並列摘要

It would not seem unreasonable to suppose that any account of human rights should start from a notion of the human person. This article opens with one such account set out by a contemporary philosopher of human rights, James Griffin. It then contrasts Griffin's account with a standard account from Catholic social teaching and notes the need for a clearer definition of what we might mean by the term 'person'. Various philosophical approaches are discussed, based either on a top-down approach from a clear metaphysical definition or a bottom-up approach based on a cumulative consideration of human needs. The paper finds neither approach yields a satisfactory conclusion.At this point the notion of ”created in the image and likeness of God” as set out in the Greek Fathers is used to provide an alternative, and richer, account of the human person, explaining also why the term is so difficult to pin down. In a final section the paper looks at various ways of considering human dignity and thus arrives at a conclusion that the term 'person' provides both an anchor and, at the same time, a dynamic picture which allows both for a grounding of human rights and yet at the same time requires rights to be unfolded in history.

並列關鍵字

Catholic social teaching ； dignity ； human rights ； image and likeness of God ； person