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Taking Human Dignity More Humanely

A Historical Contribution to the Ethical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy

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Human Dignity of the Vulnerable in the Age of Rights

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 55))

Abstract

The chapter argues that Kantian autonomy has sometimes been misunderstood, as if Kant would have viewed any choice as lawful, whatever its content might be. It should be noted that Kant followed earlier thinkers who had already found human rights (or natural rights) in the ‘dignity of human nature’. Thus Kant was not the first thinker to connect human rights with dignity, and the latter with human nature. The link between human rights, human nature and the expression ‘dignity’ appeared in the eighteenth century, but earlier than Kant.

The chapter is composed of an introduction (Part I) and four other parts. Part two describes the emergence of human rights and human dignity after the World War II in Public International law and constitutional law. Part three deals with the revival of Kantian thought on human dignity. Part four shows how some seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century thinkers linked the notion of ‘dignity’ to human nature, using – before Kant – the expression ‘dignity of human nature’. Finally, Part five argues that a sound foundation of human rights is required to protect those who are most vulnerable, and that this foundation in turn requires the recognition of a human nature which makes all human beings equal, without any kind of discrimination. In other words, taking human nature more seriously will make us take human dignity more humanely.

There is but one means to save our civilization and to preserve the human dignity of man. It is to wipe out Nazism radically and pitilessly. Only after the total destruction of Nazism will the world be able to resume its endeavors to improve social organization and to build up the good society. The alternatives are humanity or bestiality, peaceful human cooperation or totalitarian despotism. All plans for a third solution are illusory.

This work has been undertaken in the context of the research project entitled “La influencia de la Codificación francesa en la tradición penal española: su concreto alcance en la Parte General de los Códigos decimonónicos” (ref. DER2012–38469), financed by the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.’

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War (1944), p. 267 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2399#Mises_OmnipotentGovt1579_873-874)).

  2. 2.

    The most recent – and exhaustive – work on this notion can be seen in Aharon Barak, Human Dignity: The Constitutional Value and the Constitutional Right (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

  3. 3.

    Christian Tomuschat, Human Rights. Between Idealism and Realism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 1.

  4. 4.

    On the history of human rights, see Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Harvard University Press, 2010); Dinah Shelton, “An Introduction to the History of International Human Rights Law” (ssrn.com. George Washington University Law School. Retrieved 10 April 2015; available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1010489); Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008); Gregorio Peces-Barba Martínez, La dignidad de la persona desde la filosofía del derecho (Madrid: Dykinson, 2004).

  5. 5.

    Mary Ann Glendon, Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse (New York: The Free Press, 1991).

  6. 6.

    International Covenants on Civil and Political, and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), Preambles.

  7. 7.

    Corinna Mieth, “The Double Foundation of Human Rights in Human Nature”, Human Rights and Human Nature (Marion Alber, Thomas Hoffmann, Jörn Reinhardt, eds.), Springer (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice Volume 35), 2014, pp. 11–22, p. 11; on this matter, see also James Griffin, On Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); Martha C. Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice: Disability, nationality, species membership (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).

  8. 8.

    Barak, Human Dignity: The Constitutional Value and the Constitutional Right, chapter 3; see also José Pablo Alzina de Aguilar, “Human dignity according to international instruments on human rights”, Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales 22 (2011), pp. 1–24 (available at http://www.reei.org/index.php/revista/num22/notas/human-dignity-according-to-international-instruments-on-human-rights); Roberto Andorno, “Human Dignity and Human Rights”, Handbook of Global Bioethics (H.A.M.J. ten Have, B. Gordijn, eds.) (Dordrecht: Springer, 2014), pp. 45–57, particularly pp. 49–50.

  9. 9.

    “A state, in turn, must be understood as ultimately deriving legitimacy from the pursuit of the human dignity the community it governs, as well as the dignity of those human beings and states affected by its actions in international relations.” (Preface of the volume 23 of the collection ‘Studies in International Law’, P. Capps, Human Dignity and the Foundations of International Law, Oxford-Portland-Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2009).

  10. 10.

    Henk Botha, “Human Dignity in Comparative Perspective” 20 Stellenbosch L. Rev. 171 (2009); Lorraine Weinrib, “Constitutional Conceptions and Constitutional Comparativism”, Defining the field of comparative constitutional law (edited by Vicki C. Jackson and Mark Tushnet) (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2002), p. 3; Karl-Eberhard Hain, “Menschenwürde als Rechtsprinzip”, H. J. Sandkühler (ed.), Menschenwürde: Philosophische, theologische und juristische Analysen, Frankfurt a. M. 2007, 87–10; Christopher McCrudden, “Human dignity and judicial interpretation of human rights”, European Journal of International Law 19 (2008), 655–724.

  11. 11.

    CJEC, C-377/98, Netherlands v European Parliament and Council [2001] ECR-I-7079 (cited by Tomuschat, Human Rights, p. 3, fn 8).

  12. 12.

    Yolanda Gómez Sánchez, “Dignidad y Ordenamiento jurídico”, Revista de Derecho Constitucional Europeo (ReDCE) 4 (julio-diciembre 2005), pp. 219–254.

  13. 13.

    Christoph Enders, Die Menschenwürde in der Verfassungsordnung (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997); Ingo von Münch, “La dignidad del hombre en el Derecho constitucional”, Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional (REDC) 5 (1982); Luis González Morán, “La dignidad humana en el ordenamiento jurídico español”, Dignidad humana y bioética (Javier de la Torre Díaz, ed.) (Madrid: Universidad Pontificia Comillas, 2007), pp. 167–197; Fernando Batista Jiménez, “La eficacia del valor dignidad de la persona en el sistema jurídico español”, Cuestiones Constitucionales: revista mexicana de derecho constitucional 11 (July–December 2004); Fernando Batista Jiménez, “La dignidad de la persona en la Constitución española: naturaleza jurídica y funciones”, Cuestiones Constitucionales: revista mexicana de derecho constitucional 14 (January–June 2006).

  14. 14.

    See, for example, Carolina Canales Cama, “La dignidad de la persona humana en el ordenamiento jurídico constitucional peruano”, Revista del Instituto de la Judicatura Federal 29 (2010), pp. 89–112.

  15. 15.

    Tomuschat, Human Rights, p. 3.

  16. 16.

    Josef Isensee, “Menschenwürde: die säkulare Gesellschaft auf der Suche nach dem Absoluten”, Archiv des öffentlichen Rechts 131 (2006), 173–218; Botha, “Human Dignity in Comparative Perspective”, p. 171.

  17. 17.

    J. Donnelly, “Human Rights Democracy, and Development” (1999) 21 HRQ 608, at 612.

  18. 18.

    In this respect, it is quite eloquent the following title, Alice H. Henkin (ed.), Human Dignity: The Internationalization of Human Rights, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies (New York)-Oceana Publications, Inc. (New York)-Sitjhoff & Noorhoff (Alphen aan den Rijn), 1979; in the last decades literature on international law of human rights has increasingly proliferated, coming out many handbooks which connect human rights and human dignity; see, for example, M. S. McDougal, H. D. Lasswell, L-C. Chen, Human Rights and World Public Order: The basic Policies of an International Law of Human Dignity (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1980); Paul Sieghart, The International Law of Human Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983); J.H. Robertson & J.G. Merrills, Human Rights in the World. An introduction to the study of the international protection of human rights (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1989); Carlos Villán Durán, Curso de Derecho internacional de los derechos humanos (Madrid: Editorial Trotta), 2002.

  19. 19.

    As Roberto Andorno points out, a mere phenomenological approach to human personhood does not suffice to properly ground human dignity (Bioética y dignidad de la persona, Tecnos: Madrid, 2012, pp. 79 ff.).

  20. 20.

    Viviana Bohórquez Monsalve & Javier Aguirre Román, “Las tensiones de la dignidad humana: conceptualización y aplicación en el Derecho internacional de los derechos humanos”, SUR: Revista Internacional de los Derechos Humanos vol. 6, 11 (2009), pp. 41–63.

  21. 21.

    “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945).

  22. 22.

    See, for example, Derek Parfit, Reason and Persons (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 108, affirming that “killing a human being is bad, but killing a person is worse.” See also, Hugo Tristram Engelhardt, Los Fundamentos de Bioética (Barcelona: Paidós, 1995), p. 358; on this matter, see Jesús Ballesteros, “Exigencias de la dignidad humana en biojuridica,” Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia Del Diritto 79 (2):177–208 (2002) (it was also published in Biotecnología, dignidad y derecho: bases para un diálogo (Angela Aparisi Miralles & Jesús Ballesteros Llompart, eds.), 2004, pp. 43–77; Jesús Ballesteros, “El titular del derecho. La distinción entre persona y ser humano: el personismo contra la universalidad de los derechos,” Manual de derechos humanos: los derechos humanos en el siglo XXI (José Justo Megías Quirós, ed.) (Cizur: Aranzadi, 2006), pp. 140–147.

  23. 23.

    Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789; I use the 1823 edition), fn. 122 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/278#lf0175_label_347): “But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”

  24. 24.

    On this matter, see Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for our Treatment of Animals (New York: New York Review/Random House, 1975); Jesús Mosterín, Vivan los animales (Madrid: Temas de hoy, 1998).

  25. 25.

    Peter Singer, Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics (Text Publishing, Melbourne, 1994); P. Singer & P. Cavalieri (eds.), The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity (London: Fourth Estate, 1993).

  26. 26.

    Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Ethics (1796), Ch. II (‘On the a priori spring of the will’), p. 52 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1443#Kant_0332_147); emphasis is mine.

  27. 27.

    Kant, The Metaphysics of Ethics (1796), Ch. II (‘On the a priori spring of the will’), pp. 51–52 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1443#Kant_0332_145); emphasis is mine.

  28. 28.

    I took the expression from George P. Fletcher, “Human Dignity as a Constitutional Value”, 22 U. W. Ontario L. Rev. 171 (1984), p. 171 (pp. 171–182).

  29. 29.

    Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3 (Usury, Political Economy, Equity, Parliamentary Reform) [1843], General view of a complete code of laws, Ch. I (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1922#Bentham_0872-03_1307).

  30. 30.

    Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3 (Usury, Political Economy, Equity, Parliamentary Reform) [1843], ‘Pannomial Fragments’, Ch. III: ‘Expositions’, p. 221; available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1922#Bentham_0872-03_2411).

  31. 31.

    The main works of the nineteenth-century utilitarian doctrine might be found in Jeremy Bentham, The Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789); John Austin, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832); Oliver W. Holmes, The Common Law (London: Macmillan & Co., 1881).

  32. 32.

    The main representative of this view is probably Richard Posner, Economic Analysis of Law (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972, 1st ed.; 2010, 8th ed.); see also Iñigo Álvarez Gálvez, Utilitarismo y derechos humanos (Madrid: Plaza y Valdés, 2009).

  33. 33.

    Jeremy Bentham, Anarchical Fallacies, in The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 2 (Judicial Procedure, Anarchical Fallacies, works on Taxation) [1843], p. 502 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1921#Bentham_0872-02_6149).

  34. 34.

    In countering terrorism, for example, it is quite clear that states have gone beyond to what is supposed to be reasonable within a constitutional democracy. On this matter see Aniceto Masferrer (ed.), Post 9/11 and the State of Permanent Legal Emergency: Security and Human Rights in Countering Terrorism (Dordrecht-Heidelberg-London-New York: Springer, 2012; Collection ‘Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice’); Aniceto Masferrer & Clive Walker (eds.), Counter-Terrorism, Human Rights and the Rule of Law: Crossing Legal Boundaries in Defence of the State (London: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013); Aniceto Masferrer (ed.), Estado de Derecho y derechos fundamentales en la lucha contra el terrorismo. Una aproximación multidisciplinar (histórica, jurídico-comparada, filosófica y económica) (Cizur: Thomson-Aranzadi, 2011).

  35. 35.

    In this vein, see, for example, Vicesimus Knox, The Spirit of Despotism (1795), where the author describes how political despotism at home can arise under the cover of fighting a foreign war.

  36. 36.

    The main works where Immanuel Kant developed his notion of human dignity were written from 1781 onwards (Critique of Pure Reason –Kritik der reinen Vernunft–, 1781, 2nd ed. 1787; Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals –Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten–,1785; Critique of Practical Reason –Kritik der praktischen Vernunft–, 1788; Metaphysics of Morals –Metaphysik der Sitten–, 1797); however, some remarks on human dignity can be found twenty years earlier, in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime –Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen–, 1764); on Kant’s human dignity, see M.A., Cattaneo, Dignità umana e pena nella filosofia di Kant (Milán: Giuffrè, 1981); M.A., Cattaneo, Dignità unama e pace perpetua: Kant e la critica della politica (Milán: CEDAM, 2002), S.M. Shell, “Kant on Human Dignity”, In Defense of Human Dignity (R.P. Kraynak & G. Tinder, eds.) (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003).

  37. 37.

    This does not mean that Kant grounded human dignity on human nature, as if he had endorsed the scholastic approach to human dignity. As it has rightly been said, “Kant’s concept of natural right is not based upon an idea of human nature, but on reason and rationality. That Kant still refers to it as ‘natural’ right cannot conceal that it is more a right of reason than a right of nature. This qualification is necessary. It does not mean, however, that reflections on human nature and ability are of no importance to Kant” (Jörn Reinhardt, “Human rights, human nature, and the Feasibility issue”, Human Rights and Human Nature (Marion Alber, Thomas Hoffmann, Jörn Reinhardt, eds.), Springer (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice Volume 35), 2014, pp. 137–158, p. 145); on this issue, see also C. Thornhill, “Natural law, state formation and the foundations of social theory”, Journal of Classical Sociology 13(2), 2013, 197–221; although it is true that “[w]ith the emphasis on subjective rights, Kant completes a central change from Classic to modern natural right, ‘the shift from the metaphysics of natural law to that of natural rights’ (K. Haakonsen, “German natural law”, Cambridge history of eighteenth-century political thought (M. Goldie & R. Wokler, eds.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 251–290, p. 280), he did not deny the ‘laws of nature’ and, in fact – as said – linked human dignity with the laws of nature and human nature.

  38. 38.

    On this matter, see the classical work by John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980); from a historical perspective, see Paul Gordon Lauren, “Philosophical Visions: Human Nature, Natural Law, and Natural Rights”, The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003); R.H. Helmholz, ‘Natural Law and Human Rights in English Law: From Bracton to Blackstone’ 3 Ave Maria L. Review 1 2005, pp. 1–22; Brian Tierney, ‘Natural law and natural rights’, Christianity and Law: An Introduction (ed. by J. Witte & F.S. Alexander) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 89–103; R.H. Helmholz, ‘Human Rights in the canon law’, Christianity and Human Rights: An Introduction (ed. by J. Witte & F.S. Alexander) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 99–112.

  39. 39.

    H. Welzel, Introducción a la Filosofía del Derecho (transl. by F. González Vicén) (Madrid: Aguilar, 1971), p. 146, fn. 113.

  40. 40.

    Hugo Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace (1901 ed.) (1625), Book II, Ch. XIX: ‘On the Right of Burial’, II, p. 216 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/553#Grotius_0138_583-585): “But the most obvious explanation is to be found in the dignity of man, who surpassing other creatures, it would be a shame, if is an act of compassion then, said Quintilian, to preserve the bodies of men from ravages of birds and beasts. For to be tore by wild beasts, as Cicero observes in his first book On Invention, is to be robbed of those honours, in death, which are due to our common nature…”

  41. 41.

    Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace, II, XIX, II, 4.

  42. 42.

    Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace, II, XIX, II, 5; this idea can be found in L. A. Seneca, “Carta LXXXVIII”, Cartas Morales a Lucilio (trasl. by J. Bofill y Ferro) (Barcelona: Planeta, “Clásicos Universales”, 1989, p. 270 ff.; on this matter, see also M. Griffin, Seneca. A philosopher in Politics, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991); Antonio Pelé, Filosofía e historia en el fundamento de la dignidad humana (PhD unpublished, Getafe: Instituto de Derechos Humanos ‘Bartolomé de las Casas’, 2006, pp. 366 ff.; available at http://e-archivo.uc3m.es/bitstream/handle/10016/3052/Tesis_Pele.pdf?sequence=7).

  43. 43.

    We use an English edition: Samuel Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence (translated by William Abbott Oldfather, 1931; revised by Thomas Behme; edited and with an introduction by Thomas Behme) (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: H. Milford, 1931; available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/pufendorf-two-books-of-the-elements-of-universal-jurisprudence).

  44. 44.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation III: ‘A man is destined by nature to lead a social life with men’, p. 235 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_837). Emphasis is mine.

  45. 45.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation IV: ‘Right reason dictated that a man should care for himself in such a way that human society be not thrown into disorder’, pp. 240 ff.

  46. 46.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation IV, pp. 240–241 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_854).

  47. 47.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation IV, pp. 241–242 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_855).

  48. 48.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation IV, pp. 242–243 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_856).

  49. 49.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation IV, p. 243 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_857): (1) That any one whatsoever should protect his own life and limbs, as far as he can, and save himself and what is his own. (2) That he should not disturb human society, or, in other words, that he should not do anything whereby society among men may be less tranquil. These laws ought so to conspire, and, as it were, be intertwined with one another, as to coalesce, as it were, into one law, namely, That each should be zealous so to preserve himself, that society among men be not disturbed.”

  50. 50.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation IV, pp. 247–248 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_861).

  51. 51.

    Ibid., p. 247.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., p. 247.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., p. 247.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., p. 247; and he went on as follows: “And finally the precept about not mutilating one’s members (except, perchance, [247] for the safety of the whole body), and not throwing one’s life away, nature and obligation not demanding it. But that a member already irreparably injured by some disease or accident can be separated from the body, so as not to infect and destroy the whole body with its contagion, is beyond doubt” (pp. 247–248).

  55. 55.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation V: ‘The law of nature alone is not directly sufficient to preserve the social life of man, but it is necessary that sovereignties be established in particular societies’, pp. 274 ff.

  56. 56.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation V, 1: ‘The causes for the law of nature alone not being sufficient for the social life among men’, p. 274 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_957).

  57. 57.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation V, 5: ‘Of [the feeling of] shame regarding the acts of matrimony’, p. 279 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#Pufendorf_1495_465).

  58. 58.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Observation V, 5: ‘Of [the feeling of] shame regarding the acts of matrimony’, p. 280 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#Pufendorf_1495_465); and he went on as follows: “And this modesty is most effective between those directly generated and their generators, to such a degree that he who is not restrained by it, so as not to be ashamed to descend to that familiar commingling of bodies with a person of that sort so united to him, is judged to be a man of utterly brazen character, and one who would shrink back from no further crime.”

  59. 59.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Definition XIII: ‘A law is a decree by which a superior binds one subject to him to direct his actions according to the command of the superior’, 13: ‘The division of a law’, p. 157 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_535).

  60. 60.

    Ibid.

  61. 61.

    Pufendorf, Two books of the Elements of universal jurisprudence, Definition XIII: ‘A law is a decree by which a superior binds one subject to him to direct his actions according to the command of the superior’, 14: ‘Disputes concerning the source, as it were, of the law of nature’, pp. 157–159 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2220#lf1495_label_536).

  62. 62.

    Ibid., p. 159.

  63. 63.

    I use its French version: Samuel von Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens (transl. by J. Barbeyrac; ed. by J. R. Thourneisen) (Bâle, 1732; reed. by the Centre de philosophie politique et juridique de l’Université de Caen: “Bibliothèque de philosophie politique et juridique”, Caen, 1987).

  64. 64.

    For an exhaustive view on this matter, see Pelé, Filosofía e historia en el fundamento de la dignidad humana, pp. 839 ff.

  65. 65.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, Préliminaires, § II, p. 2.

  66. 66.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. I, Chap. III, § I & III, pp. 38–39.

  67. 67.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. I., Chap. I, § IV & VI, pp. 5–6.

  68. 68.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, Préliminaires, § III, p. 4.

  69. 69.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. II, Chap. I, § V, pp. 145–146.

  70. 70.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. II, Chap. I, § V, p. 146.

  71. 71.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. I, Chap. III, § IV, p. 41.

  72. 72.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. I, Chap. II, § VI, p. 146.

  73. 73.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. I, Chap. II, § VII, p. 147.

  74. 74.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. I, Chap. II, § VI, p. 146; see also L. III, Chap. II, § VI, p. 315.

  75. 75.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. I, Chap. II, § VII, p. 147.

  76. 76.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II, § I, p. 308, where he resorted to the idea that God wrote the law in man’s heart.

  77. 77.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II.

  78. 78.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II, § I, p. 309; in J. Barbeyrac’s view, Pufendorf was inspired here by the poetry Estacio, Tebaida, Lib. XII, v. 556 ff.

  79. 79.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II, § I, p. 309.

  80. 80.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. I, § I, p. 293.

  81. 81.

    Ibid.

  82. 82.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. II, Chap. III, § 16, p. 199.

  83. 83.

    Welzel, Introducción a la Filosofía del Derecho, p. 145.

  84. 84.

    Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace, vol. 1, Book I, Preliminary Discourse, VI, xvi-xvii (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1425#Grotius_0138.01_132).

  85. 85.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. III, § 15, p. 195.

  86. 86.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II, § VIII, p. 316.

  87. 87.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II, § VIII, p.317.

  88. 88.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II, § VIII, p. 317.

  89. 89.

    Pufendorf, Le droit de la nature et des gens, L. III, Chap. II, § VIII, p. 319.

  90. 90.

    Christian Thomasius, Fundamenta juris naturae et gentium (1705); see also his Institutiones iurisprudentiae divinae (1688).

  91. 91.

    Christian Wolff, Jus naturae and Jus Gentium (1740–1749).

  92. 92.

    John Trenchard (England, 1662–1723) would be one of these exceptions. Besides affirming that too many authors used the expression without having understood it, he gave a remarkable negative view of the ‘dignity of human nature’; John Trenchard, Cato’s Letters, vol. 2 June 24, 1721 to March 3, 1722 (LF ed.) (1724), Letter n. 40, Saturday, August 5, 1721: Considerations on the restless and selfish Spirit of Man, Gordon; available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1238#Trenchard_0226-02_115-116).

  93. 93.

    See, for example, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (England, 1671–1713), Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 2 (1737), Part III, section I, p. 195 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/812#Shaftesbury_6666_573).

  94. 94.

    George Turnbull (Scotland, 1699–1748), The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy. Vol. 1: The Principles of Moral Philosophy (1740), pp. 13–14 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1342#Turnbull_0968-01_102).

  95. 95.

    Turnbull, The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy. Vol. 2: The Principles of Moral Philosophy (1740), p. 700 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1822#Turnbull_0968-02_590).

  96. 96.

    Ibid., p. 611 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1822#Turnbull_0968-02_469).

  97. 97.

    Ibid., p. 705 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1822#Turnbull_0968-02_592); see also George Turnbull, Observations upon Liberal Education, in All its Branches (1742), p. 108 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/892#Turnbull_0478_343).

  98. 98.

    Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, 2 vols., 1732; available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/mandeville-the-fable-of-the-bees-or-private-vices-publick-benefits-2-vols); this work came out in more than half a dozen editions and became one of the most enduringly controversial works of the eighteenth century for its claims about the moral foundations of modern commercial society.

  99. 99.

    Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, vol. 1, pp. 43–44 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/846#Mandeville_0014-01_340).

  100. 100.

    Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, vol. 1, p. 44 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/846#Mandeville_0014-01_340).

  101. 101.

    Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, vol. 1, pp. 43–44 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/846#Mandeville_0014-01_341): “To introduce, moreover, an Emulation amongst Men, they divided the whole Species into two Classes, vastly differing from one another: The one consisted of abject, low-minded People, that always hunting after immediate Enjoyment, were wholly incapable of Self-denial, and without regard to the good of others, had no higher Aim than their private Advantage; such as being enslaved by Voluptuousness, yielded without Resistance to every gross desire, and made no use of their Rational Faculties but to heighten their Sensual Pleasure. These vile grov’ling Wretches, they said, were the Dross of their Kind, and having [44] only the Shape of Men, differ’d from Brutes in nothing but their outward Figure. But the other Class was made up of lofty high-spirited Creatures, that free from sordid Selfishness, esteem’d the Improvements of the Mind to be their fairest Possessions; and setting a true value upon themselves, took no Delight but in embellishing that Part in which their Excellency consisted; such as despising whatever they had in common with irrational Creatures, opposed by the Help of Reason their most violent Inclinations; and making a continual War with themselves to promote the Peace of others, aim’d at no less than the Publick Welfare and the Conquest of their own Passion.”

  102. 102.

    Thomas Gordon, The Independent Whig (1720; 7th ed. 1743), vol. 2, pp. 210–211 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2382#Gordon_1563-02_299).

  103. 103.

    Gordon, The Independent Whig, vol. 1, pp. 280–281 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2380#Gordon_1563-01_655).

  104. 104.

    See fn. n. 30.

  105. 105.

    Henry Home, Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism (1762), vol. 1, Chap. XI: ‘Dignity and Grace’, p. 246 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_641).

  106. 106.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 246 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_642).

  107. 107.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 247 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_643).

  108. 108.

    Ibid.

  109. 109.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 247 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_644).

  110. 110.

    Ibid.

  111. 111.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 247 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_645).

  112. 112.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 247 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_646).

  113. 113.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 248 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_647).

  114. 114.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, pp. 248–249 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_648).

  115. 115.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 249 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_649).

  116. 116.

    Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. 1, Chap. XI, p. 249 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1430#Home_1252-01_650).

  117. 117.

    Ibid.

  118. 118.

    John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 4 (Novanglus, Thoughts on Government, Defence of the Constitution) [1851], p. 205 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2102#Adams_1431-04_591).

  119. 119.

    John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799–1811) (1854), p. 149 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2107#Adams_1431-09_430).

  120. 120.

    Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 10 (Letters 1811–1825, Indexes) (1854), pp. 316–317 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2127#Adams_1431-10_1058).

  121. 121.

    John Adams, Revolutionary Writings (1763), p. 15 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/592#Adams_0284_82).

  122. 122.

    John Adams, Revolutionary Writings (1763), p. 26 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/592#Adams_0284_103).

  123. 123.

    David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary (LF ed.) (1777), Essay XI: ‘Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human nature’, pp. 81–87 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_199). As Eugene F. Miller stated in his Foreword, “[t]he preparation and revision of his essays occupied Hume throughout his adult life. In his late twenties, after completing three books of the Treatise, Hume began to publish essays on moral and political themes. His Essays, Moral and Political was brought out late in 1741 by Alexander Kincaid, Edinburgh’s leading publisher.” This edition contained the following essays: (1) “Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion”; (2) “Of the Liberty of the Press”; (3) “Of Impudence and Modesty”; (4) “That Politics may be reduced to a Science”; (5) “Of the First Principles of Government”; (6) “Of Love and Marriage”; (7) “Of the Study of History”; (8) “Of the Independency of Parliament”; (9) “Whether the British Government inclines more to Absolute Monarchy, or to a Republic”; (10) “Of Parties in General”; (11) “Of the Parties of Great Britain”; (12) “Of Superstition and Enthusiasm”; (13) “Of Avarice”; (14) “Of the Dignity of Human Nature”; and (15) “Of Liberty and Despotism.” The title of essay 14 was changed to “Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature” in the 1770 edition of Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects (ibid., fn. n. 5).

  124. 124.

    Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, Essay XI: ‘Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human nature’, pp. 81–82 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_199).

  125. 125.

    Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, Essay XI: ‘Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human nature’, p. 82 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_200).

  126. 126.

    Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, Essay XI: ‘Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human nature’, p. 83 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_203).

  127. 127.

    Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, Essay XI: ‘Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human nature’, p. 86 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_208).

  128. 128.

    Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, Essay XI: ‘Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human nature’, pp. 86–87 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_208): “In the first place, they found, that every act of virtue or friendship was attended with a secret pleasure; whence they concluded, that friendship and virtue could not be disinterested. But the fallacy of this is obvious. The virtuous sentiment or passion produces the pleasure, and does not arise from it. I feel a pleasure in doing good to my friend, because I love him; but do not love him for the sake of that pleasure.”

  129. 129.

    Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, Essay XI: ‘Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human nature’, p. 89 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_209).

  130. 130.

    Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, Essay XV: ‘Of the Protestant Succession’, p. 509 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#Hume_0059_1012).

  131. 131.

    Edmund Burke, Select Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 1 (Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents; Two Speeches on America) (1770; 2nd ed., 1775), p. 223 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/796#Burke_0005-01_566).

  132. 132.

    Norberto Bobbio, The Age of Rights (trans. by A. Cameron) (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996), p. 32.

  133. 133.

    Willard Gaylin, “In Defense of the Dignity of Being Human,” The Hastings Center Report, vol. 14, no. 4 (Aug., 1984), p. 18.

  134. 134.

    See fn n. 28.

  135. 135.

    Jenny Teichmann, Social Ethics: A Student’s Guide (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), chap. 7, subtitle ‘Autonomy’.

  136. 136.

    Jesús Ballesteros, “El individualismo como obstáculo para la universalidad de los derechos humanos”, Persona y derecho 41 (1999), pp. 15–28, particularly pp. 17–18.

  137. 137.

    Ibid., pp. 24–25; see also Ballesteros, “Exigencias de la dignidad humana en biojuridica,” in pages dealing with one of the consequences of utilitarianism, namely, the priority of animals’ rights over some human beings’ rights.

  138. 138.

    J. Conill Sancho & A. Cortina Orts, “La fragilidad y la vulnerabilidad como partes constitutivas del ser humano,” Bioética y Pediatría: Proyectos de vida plena (M. de los Reyes López & M. Sánchez Jacob, coords.) (Madrid: Ergon S.A., 2010), pp. 21–27.

  139. 139.

    Jeremy Waldrom (ed.), Nonsense Upon Stilts: Bentham, Burke, and Marx on the Rights of Man (London: Methuen, 1987), p. 1.

  140. 140.

    John Rawls, “The Laws of Peoples”, Critical Inquiry 20/1 (Autumn 1993), p. 59.

  141. 141.

    H.L.A. Hart, “Between Utility and Rights”, Ronald Dworkin and Contemporary Jurisprudence (M. Cohen, ed.) (London: Duckworth, 1983); Álvarez Gálvez, Utilitarismo y derechos humanos: la propuesta de John S. Mill (Madrid: Plaza y Valdés, 2009).

  142. 142.

    Zühtu Arslan, “Taking Rights less Seriously: Postmodernism and Human Rights”, Res Publica 5 (1999), pp. 195–215; see also M. Salter, “The Impossibility of Human Rights within a Postmodern Account of Law and Justice”, Journal of Civil Liberties 1 (1996), 29–66; Jesús Ballesteros, Postmodernidad: decadencia o resistencia (Madrid: Tecnos, 1989).

  143. 143.

    Arslan, “Taking Rights less Seriously: Postmodernism and Human Rights”, p. 209.

  144. 144.

    Brad Stetson, “Human dignity: Rhetoric versus reality”, Human Dignity and Contemporary Liberalism (Westport, Ct.: Praeger, 1998), pp. 3–42.

  145. 145.

    Arslan, “Taking Rights less Seriously: Postmodernism and Human Rights”, pp. 209–210.

  146. 146.

    See fn n. 29.

  147. 147.

    See fn n. 23.

  148. 148.

    This concept of human nature came from Antiquity, but it was particularly developed in the sixteenth century, within the context of the Spanish colonization of America; in this vein, it is very well known the famous sermon which gave Fray Antonio Montesinos on December 21, 1511, the fourt Sunday of Advent, criticizing the practices of the Spanish colonial encomienda system, and “the cruelty and tyranny they practice[d] among (…) innocent peoples”. He said: “Tell me by what right of justice do you hold these Indians in such a cruel and horrible servitude? On what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these people who dealt quietly and peacefully on their own lands? Wars in which you have destroyed such an infinite number of them by homicides and slaughters never heard of before. Why do you keep them so oppressed and exhausted, without giving them enough to eat or curing them of the sicknesses they incur from the excessive labor you give them, and they die, or rather you kill them, in order to extract and acquire gold every day.” (Bartolomé de Las Casas, Witness: Writing of Bartolome de Las Casas (ed. and trans. by George Sanderlin) (Maryknoll: Orbis books, 1993), pp. 66–67); on this matter, see Isabel Sánchez de Movellán Torent, “La dignidad humana como base de los derechos humanos fundamentales: de los escritos de los teólogos-juristas del s.XVI a la Carta de Derechos Fundamentales de la Unión Europea”, La Eficacia de los Derechos fundamentales de la UE. Cuestiones avanzadas (Pamplona: Aranzadi-Thomson Reuters, 2014), pp. 593–611.

  149. 149.

    See, for example, James Madison, “The Federalist No. 51”, The Federalist Papers: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Hay (ed. by C. Rossiter with an Introduction and Notes by C.R. Kesler) (New York: Signet Classic, 2003): “[W]hat is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?”; Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Constitution (Cambridge, Massachusetts – London, UK: 1992, enlarged edition), pp. 175–198; Mortimer Sellers, The Sacred Fire of Liberty: Republicanism, Liberalism and the Law (London: Macmillan, 1998); Mortimer Sellers, American Republicanism: Roman Ideology in the United States Constitution (London: Macmillan, 1994).

  150. 150.

    See fn n. 130.

  151. 151.

    Some authors distinguish between ‘intrinsic dignity’ (that which everyone has simply by the fact of being human, and not reserved just for the especially virtuous) or ‘extrinsic dignity’ (that which depends on the mentality and behaviour of people); on this matter, see Stetson, “Human dignity: Rhetoric versus reality”, pp. 15–18; Roberto Andorno distinguishes between ‘intrinsic dignity’ and ‘ethical dignity’ (Bioética y dignidad de la persona, p. 73), grounding on the former the concept of human dignity.

  152. 152.

    A. Masferrer, ‘The fragility of fundamental rights in the origins of modern constitutionalism: its negative impact in protecting human rights in the ‘war on terror’ era,’ in Counter-Terrorism, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, ed. A. Masferrer and C. Walker (London: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) at 51 (defending that fundamental rights have a pre-political character, in the sense that their recognition and protection is what justifies the existence of the political order itself); H. Cleveland, “Introduction: The Chain Reaction of Human Rights”, Alice H. Henkin (ed.), Human Dignity: The Internationalization of Human Rights, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies (New York)-Oceana Publications, Inc. (New York)-Sitjhoff & Noorhoff (Alphen aan den Rijn), 1979, pp. ix–xii: “Only with the Enlightenment came widespread acceptance of the idea that every human being has rights that are to be recognized, even protected, by society but are not conferred by authority.” (x)

  153. 153.

    Martha C. Nussbaum, “Human Dignity and Political Entitlements”, Human Dignity and Bioethics (Washington D.C.: The President’s Council on Bioethics, March 2008); see also Martha C. Nussbaum, Frontiers of justice: disability, nationality, species membership (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press – Harvard University Press, 2006); for a critical approach to Nussbaum’s notion of dignity, see Paola Bernardini, “Human Dignity and Human Capabilities in Martha C. Nussbaum”, 6 Iustum Aequum Salutare 45 (2010), pp. 45–52.

  154. 154.

    See fn nn. 23–25.

  155. 155.

    As we saw, Kant’s notion of autonomy required a ‘good will’, and highly regarded human nature – not in the scholastic way though – and its common good. Today some limitless conceptions of autonomy are simply incompatible with the Kant’s legal theory, no matter their supporters might consider themselves to be Kantians or Neo-Kantians, or might resort to Kantian sources to defend what Kant never asserted.

  156. 156.

    The primacy of autonomy over human nature originated the transhumanist thought; on this matter, see Nick Bostrom, “A History of Transhumanist Thought”, Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 14 Issue 1, April 2005; reprinted in Academic Writing Across the Disciplines, eds. Michael Rectenwald & Lisa Carl (New York: Pearson Longman, 2011); see also Julian Savulescu, Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); in bioethics, see, for example, D. Birnbacher & P. Dabrock, “Wie sollten Ärzte mit Patientenverfügungen umgehen? Ein Vorschlag aus interdisziplinärer Sicht”, Ethik Med 2007 19: 147, defending the principle voluntas aegroti suprema lex (instead of aegroti salus suprema lex); Marion Albers, “Enhancement, Human Nature, and Human Rights”, Human Rights and Human Nature (Marion Alber, Thomas Hoffmann, Jörn Reinhardt, eds.), Springer (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice Volume 35), 2014, pp. 235–266.

  157. 157.

    Sydney Hook, “In defense of voluntary euthanasia” Arguing Euthanasia (J.D. Moreno, ed.) (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), pp. 237–240; see also Josef Kuře, Euthanasia–The “Good Death” Controversy in Humans and Animals (Rijeka: Intech, 2011).

  158. 158.

    Harun Tepe, “Rethinking Human Nature as a Basis for Human Rights”, Human Rights and Human Nature (Marion Alber, Thomas Hoffmann, Jörn Reinhardt, eds.), Springer (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice Volume 35), 2014, pp. 57–77, p. 58, who cites C. Berry, Human Nature (London: Macmillan, 1986).

  159. 159.

    Arnd Pollmann, “Human rights beyond naturalism”, Human Rights and Human Nature (Marion Alber, Thomas Hoffmann, Jörn Reinhardt, eds.), Springer (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice Volume 35), 2014, pp. 121–136, particularly pp. 121–122.

  160. 160.

    Jean-Paul Sartre, L’existentialisme est un humanisme (1946).

  161. 161.

    Ruth Macklin, “Dignity is a useless concept”, British Medical Journal 327 (2003), pp. 1419–1420; I agree with her that “to invoke the concept of dignity without clarifying its meaning is to use a mere slogan” (p. 1420), and that the concept of human dignity is not meaningful enough if “it is nothing more than a capacity for rational thought and action, the central features conveyed in the principle of respect for autonomy” (p. 1420). As we saw, if the concept of ‘human dignity’ is detached from ‘human nature’, dignity becomes – as Macklin concluded – “a useless concept in medical ethics and can be eliminated without any loss of content.” (p. 1420)

  162. 162.

    For a human concept of human dignity, see Roberto Andorno, “Human Dignity and Human Rights as a Common Ground for a Global Bioethics”, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 34: 223–240, 2009, particularly pp. 228–230.

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    Aniceto Masferrer

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Masferrer, A. (2016). Taking Human Dignity More Humanely. In: Masferrer, A., García-Sánchez , E. (eds) Human Dignity of the Vulnerable in the Age of Rights. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 55. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32693-1_10

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