Some remarks on the concept and intellectual history ofhuman dignity

• Authors: Marián Palenčár
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article looks at general problems associated with the explication of the concept of human dignity, then looks specifically at this in relation to bioethics and suggests possible solutions. The author explores the intellectual history of the concept (Cicero) and responds to the radical criticism that the concept of human dignity is useless and redundant in bioethical discourse (it is ambiguous, lacks cognitive content, is of religious provenance and is incompatible with the modern (Darwinist) scientific image of the world). He argues 1) that the ambiguity and relativity of the concept can be solved by precisely identifying the content and performing a classification analysis and shows that the concept does have cognitive content that is irreducible to other concepts; 2) that the need to elaborate the concept of human dignity is pre-Christian in origin (Cicero) and that the idea of a personal God and the Holy Trinity are not prerequisite to the concept; and 3) that the idea of human dignity as otherness could prevent anthropocentric speciesism and the naturalistic abolition of human self-identity.

Keywords

EN

philosophy; bioethics; dignity; epistemology; anthropocentrism; naturalism; human dignity as otherness

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 462-477

Dates

published

2016-10-01

online

2016-10-17

Contributors

author

Marián Palenčár

• Institute of Ethics and Bioethics, Faculty of Arts, University of Prešov, 17 Novembra 1, 08078 Prešov,

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/humaff-2016-0039