인간존엄 존중 규범의 정당화

Abstract

This paper examines the detailed theses to be argued in order to justify a moral claim to respect human dignity. In this context, human dignitarianism which conveys only trivial implications for practical discussion would be excluded. First of all, unlike the weak version of human dignitarianism, the strong version of human dignitarianism does not claim that it bypasses the existing established theory of ethics, but denotes that their thesis is independent of the existing ethical theories and is more fundamental than them. In contrast, the weak version of human dignitarianism argues that the very basic thesis of established ethical theory is the one to specify the claim, that is, “human dignity should be respected.” However, when observing the issues where the request for respect for human dignity appears desperately, we can see that the human dignitarianism that the modern society aspires to should be placed in a strong version. This is because these issues are difficult to address by superficial application of the existing ethical theories. Therefore, it is a strong view of human dignitarianism that deserves serious consideration. However, in order to justify this strong view, the detailed theses implied by this view should be explained with consistency with existing established ethical theories or provide the best explanation to overcome the established theory. The theses that need to be argued can be divided into two types in order to justify the strong version of human dignitarianism. One is about the thesis of what human dignity is, such as “human dignity is a value property of each human being.” The other is about the theses of the content, scope, and justification of the obligations brought about by the existence of human dignity, such as “the fact that someone holds this property places a certain obligation on all members of society for that holder.”, “The content of the obligation is to preserve, maintain, and develop the properties.”, and “This duty must be performed prior to any other duties.” Furthermore, there is the view that “the moral claim to respect human dignity necessarily implies the legal validity of specific norms with some content related to the guarantee of human dignity”, that is, legal human dignitarianism. In this regard, the thesis of legal human dignitarianism will be reviewed, and then the justifications for legal norms that are generally claimed to be inevitably derived from legal human dignitarianism will also be discussed.