DIGNITY, JUSTICE AND ETHICAL TRAINING: A PHILOSOPHICAL READING OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1948) IN THE LIGHT OF ARISTOTLE

Abstract

This article proposes a philosophical reading of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), focusing on the preamble and the ethical foundations that support its proclamation. It starts from the premise that human dignity, although proclaimed as an innate and universal right, is only realized when the subject is capable of taking it as a conscience, from a rational perspective and guided by transformative education that generates sensitivity to the world in which the said subject is inserted. In conjunction with and based on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, the article explores the idea that the exercise of dignity requires the formation of character, the deliberate practice of virtues and the insertion of the individual in ethical relationships that enable this development from a rational perspective and from practice. The text also analyzes the notions of justice, freedom and otherness as complementary structures for the realization of human rights. It is concluded that the effectiveness of the UDHR depends, ultimately, on the construction of the subject, considering ethical and intellectual virtuosity.