Dignity, Equality, Freedom: The EU-Policy Values Viewed Personalistically

• Main Author: Michael Nnamdi Konye
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Étienne Gilson Society 2016-09-01
• Series: Studia Gilsoniana
• Subjects: dignity; equality; freedom; European Union; personalism; subjectivity; individual; person; imago Dei; identity; incommunicability; responsibility; human action; human rights
• Online Access: http://gilsonsociety.com/files/491-526-NnamdiKonye.pdf

The author points out that dignity, equality, and freedom are leading themes of the European Union policy and should be respected and upheld if understood personalistically. He agrues that the subjectivity of the individual person, rather than that of the public state, underlines the context of interpreting those themes which are the liberal values the Western society purports to cultivate. Therefore, he claims that dignity is grounded on the understanding of man as imago Dei, equality is doubly grounded in both the unique identity and incommunicability of each human person, and freedom is doubly grounded in the dual responsibility of each human person for his or her actions as well as the responsibility we share for each human life from conception to natural death.