The Anthropology of the Homo Dignus

Abstract

Dignity is not a fundamental right among others, nor is it a superior kind of norm. Following its legal evolution, one can see that it came to integrate fundamental principles that were already consolidated — freedom, equality, solidarity —, thus becoming part of them and imposing a new interpretation through a logic of indivisibility. As good science requires, the global reconstruction of a system demands that its dynamics be perceived, so that each component redefines all others, giving each of them new strength and stronger bonds with society. The homo dignus does not depend on a principle that surpasses freedom, equality, fraternity and, in a way, resizes it. From the continuous interweaving of these fundamental principles and of their reciprocal illumination, this homo receives a greater plenitude of life and, therefore, more intense human dignity.