Human dignity in the early modern period

Project leaders: Prof. Dr. Dr. Matthias Lutz-Bachmann and Prof. Dr. Luise Schorn-Schütte

In the sub-project “Human dignity/human rights in the early modern period”, both the concept of human dignity and that of human rights formed central points of reference for normative legitimation, to which reference was made from (legal) philosophical, ethical, legal, (ideological) historical and political perspectives. In most cases, today’s readings are based on the concept of human dignity developed by Kant in a specific combination of Stoic, Christian, humanist and Enlightenment traditions. The stylization of “modernity” as an epochal rupture, which can be observed in the research landscape in some cases, not only glorifies the Enlightenment concentrated in Kant, but also denies the historicity, i.e. the spatial and temporal situatedness of the development of normative concepts.

The project, carried out in cooperation between history and philosophy, aimed to examine the precursors in the history of ideas, particularly in the context of late Spanish scholasticism, which reacted to the colonial experience of the 16th and 17th centuries, and to examine their systematic contribution to human rights debates.

The Salamanca School stands out because it was confronted with a universal system of rule that spanned the globe. The Spanish-Habsburg monarchy reached the limits of its claim to power both at its borders and within its borders. The relationship between national monarchies and the Church was called into question. The rights of the individual within and outside these communities were also under threat. The theorists of late Spanish scholasticism considered these issues in their interconnectedness.

Across the religious-confessional fragmentations, comparable patterns of argumentation emerge in the European estates debates, which refer to patterns of justification of the right of necessity and resistance (natural law, Roman law, ancient tradition), but also to conscience as a politically and theologically controversial concept. Religion cannot be imposed by force, which was a point of conflict in the 16th/17th century and a relevant argument within all European systems of rule, but also against colonial peoples. It represents the ferment of the modern concept of human rights. The most important event in this project was: “Human Rights, Human Dignity and Cosmopolitan Ideals”, Guest House of the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main from May 6-7, 2011.