Human dignity in political perspective: Charles Taylor and the rehabilitation of ontological issues in the field of politics

Abstract

This article focuses on the concept of "human dignity", a key concept in contemporary Brazilian legal practice, and claims that it needs a new reading from its essential link to the principle of citizenship. The text recalls Charles Taylor's distinction between ontological and normative analysis, useful for distinguishing the different models of dignity and for rethinking it in its grounding role of legal system. From the political perspective, human dignity does not fit a non-participative model, according to which the human being is just a client of the Administration or of the Courts. Having dignity means and requires activity, initiative and mobilization in public sphere. That makes it possible to human beings to actually stand as the fundament of democratic law and State.