Human dignity and Law The dignity of the person and its constitutive relevance in Law

Abstract

In this paper the author intends to restore the notion of dignity of the human person based on the overcoming of modern and contemporary attempts of founding said notion rationally, upon empiricist, pragmatist or rationalist bases, or of denying it from marxist, freudian, structuralist or postmodern perspectives. The author attempts this restoration upon the ontological bases on which classical philosophy thought the idea of person, and puts emphasis on the idea of metaphysical participation. And, as a consequence of this refoundation, the idea of dignity is reformulated and applied to the notions of law, natural law, human rights, rule of law and others, giving way to a philosophical-realistic conceptualization of ethics and law.