 zobacz powiększenie | DOI 10.12887/37-2024-1-145-05 Witold P. GLINKOWSKI, Dignity as a Response a Person Gives to Another Person Cena brutto: 7,00 PLN za szt. |
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The article aims to demonstrate that the concept of human dignity must be considered with a view to dialogical relationships, which substantially differ from those characterized by a subject–object structure (in which the activity level of their particular elements is polarized), such as, e.g., cognitive and technical–operational relations. In the case of a dialogical relationship, both elements exhibit subjectivity, although neither of them is a human construct in the plane of their origin. Rather, they are both a gift of which the human being is a beneficiary, which strongly implies human dignity. However, while the concept of dignity as an ontic category provides the basis for the consideration of dignity in its dialogical frame, dignity as such must not be reduced to the level of an ontic category or perceived merely as a characteristic or a property of a human being. Whereas human beings have no bearing on their dignity conceived as an ontic trait, dignity perceived in terms of a goal, a task, or an accomplishment manifests itself as an ever-actual challenge the human being faces and freely and consciously meets. Only such an understanding of dignity—which surpasses human ontic build-up and is manifested in the conscious and free decisions a human being takes—makes it possible to see in a human being not only one which has been shaped and equipped in a specific way, but also a dialogical subject. A dialogical subject is one capable of responding to a situation of ethical challenge, as well as of assuming responsibility by his or her response. Only the testimony given to another human being proves to be a complete testimony of human dignity. Omitting the dialogical context in which the affirmation of human dignity takes place and reducing it to an ontic aspect—to a property that distinguishes human beings by virtue of their freedom, reason, etc.—would be tantamount to a reductionism. Keywords: human dignity, human person, dialogic relationship, being human Contact: Katedra Filozofii Współczesnej, Instytut Filozofii, Wydział Filozoficzno-Historyczny, Uniwersytet Łódzki, ul. Narutowicza 65, 90-131 Łódź, Poland | |
