Humanity is humility

In truth, all human beings have real dignity simply because they are persons—entities with natural capacities for thought and free choice.

by Anwar A. Khan

Man, humanity is not hostility. Humanity is humility. Man, humanity is not gullibility. Humanity is generosity. Man, humanity souls has never been subjects to severity but sanctity. Man, humanity is not ignobility. Humanity is dignity. Man, humanity is not royalty. Humanity is loyalty.

Humanity is a community, not a sorority of individuality. Humanity is not infidelity. Humanity is honesty. Humanity is not how wealthy. Humanity is how a loyal legacy. Humanity is not how large is your multinationals entity. Humanity is how huge is your small heart-its hospitality. Humanity is a humble history, a saintly story.

The most important thing to remember about humanism, however, is that its most important characteristics lie not in its content or its adherents, but in its spirit. To understand humanism, it must be contrasted with the piety and scholasticism of the Middle Ages, against which humanism was regarded as a free and open breath of fresh air. Indeed, humans needed more intellectual freedom in which they could develop their faculties.

The central focus of humanism was, quite simply, human beings. Humans were praised for their achievements, which were attributed to human ingenuity and human effort rather than divine grace. Humans were regarded optimistically in terms of what they could do, not just in the arts and sciences but even morally. Human concerns were given greater attention, leading people to spend more time on work that would benefit people in their daily lives rather than the otherworldly interests.

Love is the supreme path, because it is emblematic for connectedness and unity. It achieves a harmony between opposites without the need to dissolve opposing forces. Therefore, we call love as integrated essence. Love is thus a unique state of being, because the loving and the loved are connected yet separate; it realises both unity and difference. When we say or write about love, we mean love for all humans, and for nature. All of these are abstract ideas, yet one must argue that love needs to be personal. It should, therefore, be initially directed towards what is near to us and then be extended until it encompasses the whole world. We want to use the same word for joy and love as Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “This joy, whose other name is love, must by its very nature have duality for its realisation. The lover seeks his own other self in his beloved. It is the joy that creates this separation, in order to realise through obstacles of union.”

Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity. Unite humanity with a living new language. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court. Avoid petty laws and useless officials. Balance personal rights with social duties. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite. Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

Various criteria for where the line should be drawn have been proposed: sentience, consciousness, self-awareness, rationality, or being a moral agent (the last two come to the same thing). We will argue that the criterion is: having a rational nature, that is, having the natural capacity to reason and make free choices, a capacity it ordinarily takes months, or even years, to actualise, and which various impediments might prevent from being brought to full actualisation. Severely retarded human beings have the same nature and thus the same basic rights as other humans: Were a therapy or surgery developed to correct whatever defect causes their mental disability, this would not change their nature. It would not change them into a different kind of being; rather, it would enable them to flourish more fully precisely as the kind of being they are—a human being. Thus, every human being has full moral worth or dignity, for every human being possesses such a rational nature.

We argue that all human beings have a special type of dignity which is the basis for the obligation all of us have not to kill them, the obligation to take their well-being into account when we act, and even the obligation to treat them as we would have them treat us, and indeed, that all human beings are equal in fundamental dignity. We give reasons to oppose the position that only some human beings, because of their possession of certain characteristics in addition to their humanity, for example, an immediately exercisable capacity for self-consciousness, or for rational deliberation, have full moral worth.

What distinguishes human beings from other animals, what makes human beings’ persons rather than things, is their rational nature, and human beings are rational creatures by virtue of possessing natural capacities for conceptual thought, deliberation, and free choice, that is, the natural capacity to shape their own lives.

Indeed, those who hold that all human beings possess a special type of dignity almost always also hold that human beings are equal in fundamental dignity. They maintain that there is no class of human beings to which other human beings should be subordinated when considering their interests or their well-being, and when devising laws and social policies. Other thinkers deny that all human beings have a special type of dignity. They maintain that only some human beings, because of their possession of certain characteristics in addition to their humanity (for example, an immediately exercisable capacity for self-consciousness, or for rational deliberation), have full moral worth. In this paper we defend the first of these two positions. We argue that all human beings, regardless of age, size, stage of development, or immediately exercisable capacities, have equal fundamental dignity.

Let us begin by offering a few preliminary thoughts on the general concept of dignity. Dignity is not a distinct property or quality, like a body’s colour, or an organ’s function. It is not a quality grasped by a direct intuition. Although there are different types of dignity, in each case the word refers to a property or properties—different ones in different circumstances that cause one to excel, and thus elicit or merit respect from others.

Our focus will be on the dignity of a person or personal dignity. The dignity of a person is that whereby a person excels other beings, especially other animals, and merits respect or consideration from other persons. We will argue that what distinguishes human beings from other animals, what makes human beings’ persons rather than things, is their rational nature.

Human beings are rational creatures by virtue of possessing natural capacities for conceptual thought, deliberation, and free choice, that is, the natural capacity to shape their own lives.

These basic, natural capacities to reason and make free choices are possessed by every human being, even those who cannot immediately exercise them. Being a person thus derives from the kind of substantial entity one is, a substantial entity with a rational nature and this is the ground for dignity in the most important sense. Because personhood is based on the kind of being one is a substantial entity whose nature is a rational nature one cannot lose one’s fundamental personal dignity as long as one exists as a human being.

There are other senses of the word ″dignity.” First, there is a type of dignity which varies in degrees, which is the manifestation or actualisation of those capacities that distinguish humans from other animals. Thus, slipping on a banana peel (being reduced for a moment to a passive object), or losing one’s independence and privacy (especially as regards our basic bodily functions), detract from our dignity in this sense. However, while this dignity seems to be compromised in certain situations, it is never completely lost. Moreover, this dignity, which varies in degree, is distinct from the more basic dignity that derives from simply being a person.

Second, it is important also to distinguish one’s sense of dignity. Something may harm one’s sense of dignity without damaging or compromising one’s real dignity. People who become dependent on others often feel a certain loss of dignity. Yet their personal dignity, and even their manifestation of that dignity, may not have been harmed at all. Often one’s sense of dignity can be at variance with one’s real dignity. Those who are sick and who bear their suffering in a courageous or dignified manner, often inspire others even though they themselves may feel a loss of dignity.

Third, a human person may be treated in a way at odds with his or her personal dignity. Human beings may be enslaved, they may be killed unjustly, raped, scorned, coerced, or wrongly imprisoned. Such treatment is undignified, yet it too, like a person’s low sense of dignity, does not cause a victim to personal dignity; the slave or the murder victim are wronged precisely because they are treated in a way at odds with their genuine personal dignity.

In truth, all human beings have real dignity simply because they are persons—entities with natural capacities for thought and free choice. All human beings have this capacity, so all human beings are persons. Each human being, therefore, deserves to be treated by all other human beings with respect and consideration. It is precisely this truth that is at stake in the debates about killing human embryos, fetuses, and severely retarded, demented, or debilitated human beings, and many other debates in bioethics.

But in present-day world, humanity has forgotten what it means to be human to find the balance: Love without fear; fight the injustice for freedom of thought; freedom to be unique; freedom to live; and to live with a purpose. Greed rules the lands. Hate divides and ignorance shackles.

But that doesn't mean all hope will be lost. Find a new sun, find a new ocean, find a new planet. These are things we know humanity will do.

In sum, human beings are animals of a special kind. They differ in kind from other animals because they have a rational nature, a nature characterized by having the basic natural capacities for conceptual thought and deliberation and free choice. In virtue of having such a nature, all human beings are persons; and all persons possess profound, inherent, and equal dignity. Thus, every human being deserves full moral respect.

And we should band together, and then we shall be able rise to the stars.

-The End -

The writer is an independent political observer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs