Paste your essay in here… The human person is a very complex being. Philosophers over the years have discussed the many aspects of the human person including Jacques Maritain. His work, The Person and the Common Good, can be encapsulated in one quote; “The human being is the most precarious and noblest of all creatures” (JM). The value of the human person can be determined by their contributions to society. But first, we must examine the relationship between the human person and society.
“We are each created as a gift for all of us and we are all a gift for you” (AMS). The human person has a unique responsibility to the gathering of other human persons which is a society. If someone is focused on the individual, then a group of individuals is just a crowd. We must examine the humanity of each person to create a society.
The human being is a member of society through their contributions to the society. These contributions can be seen as beneficial to the society or detrimental to the society. Human contributions can therefore have both detrimental and beneficial effects. This is what Maritain means when he says “A human being is the most precarious and the noblest of all creatures”. What we do can be good or bad. This precariousness comes from human weakness. A perfect example of human weakness can be seen in the Bible with King David. In 2 Samuel 11 David sees the wife of Uriah and wants her for himself. Although she is already married he gives in to his human weakness for her and sleeps with her. “The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, ‘I am pregnant’.” (2 Samuel 11:5) Again, David, instead of doing the right thing tries to cover it up and has Uriah killed so he can have his wife to himself. This is just one of many examples of humans reverting to their sinful nature and giving in to their weakness.
A historical example of this is the story of Benedict Arnold. He was a general in the American Continental Army during the revolutionary war who defected to the British army. While he was in the Continental Army Arnold lived an extravagant lifestyle by trying to capitalize off of the economic fluctuations when change of powers took place in a town. This however backfired on him and he ended up in substantial debt and was charged by the Continental Army with 13 counts of misbehavior and was court martialed. The British army offered him £20,000 if he surrendered his post in the Continental Army and came to fight on their side. Rather than stay loyal to his duty he succumbed to his human weakness; greed, and defected to the British Army simply because of wealth (US History).
This human falling into sin is a result of our material pole. It is not the true person but rather individuality. “It is to the material pole, the individual become the center of all…” (JM) As explored earlier, individuals cannot make a society, they only make a crowd. This is the selfishness we have and this need to only advance ourselves and not take into account how our actions can be a detriment to all of society.
Pascal goes as far to assert that “the self is detestable”. Human greed, gluttony, and pride, just some of the seven deadly sins, are our precarious, detestable features. It is only when a human person can overcome these and not give in to them that they can being to contribute positively to society and thus become a member of that society; not an individual in a crowd.
Humans giving in to their weakness can be detrimental to society as a whole. If a person puts their own good over the good of the society they are not properly functioning as a member of society. The good of the human person and the good of society are of equal importance and are meant to be considered equally.
Humans not only succumb to their weakness though, they can also contribute a great deal to society and the universe as a whole. Maritain asserts that “A human being is the… noblest of all creatures.” This human nobility is based on their value and value is determined by the human person’s contribution to society. The human person and society are distinctly codependent as pointed out in Maritain’s Person and the Common Good, “The common good is common because it is received in persons, each one of whom is as a mirror of the whole.” The whole Maritain speaks of is society which is made up of the persons. Each person is working for the common good of the society which in turn is the common good of the other persons of the society. This common good can be attained in many ways but ultimately it is the fruit of human nobility and their contributions to the society. “Because the common good is the human common good, it includes within its essence, as we shall see later, the service of the human person” (JM)
If you look at the history of civilization you can see how far the human person has come. The luxuries and the quality of life many enjoy today did not exist just 140 years ago. In 1879 Thomas Edison was able to harness electricity and create the light bulb. This invention completely revolutionized the way society as a whole operated. People could now be productive at night along with the day. The contribution by one man benefited the society as a whole and still does today. This shows the human nobility and value to society.
Persons also show value in their society when they sacrifice themselves to defend their society or the beliefs of their society. An example of this is the Vietnam War. Communism was spreading into Vietnam and the fall of Vietnam to communism, many believed, would lead to the fall of all of Asia. America, who had seen first-hand the devastating effects of communism in the Soviet Union during and after World War II, wanted to protect their ideal of democracy. Many men fought and died overseas in Vietnam to try to defend a country that wasn’t even their own but to protect the ideal of democracy and the freedom they believed in and participated in as members of the American society. Democracy was the base of their ability to have free thought and truly develop in mind, soul, and body. Without democracy people wouldn’t be able to think freely and fully participate as members of society. These men, by dying for their society were the epitome of human nobility.
Another example of how humans have contributed to society positively is the martyrs. These are people who have died in the name of preserving the catholic faith for society. Fourteen-year-old José Luis Sánchez del Río was captured in the Cristero War. The Mexican government was trying to eliminate The Church’s power and influence in Mexico by seizing church property and exiling or executing priests. St. Jose was imprisoned and told to renounce his faith. He refused and was forced to march barefoot through the town after they had cut the bottoms of his feet. They told him they would spare his life if he announced “death to Christ the King”. Instead he proclaimed “Viva Cristo Rey”. He was stabbed multiple times and then shot in the head (Denver Catholic). His sacrifice of his life to preserve his faith was a contribution to society that will have a lasting positive impact. This martyrdom is the pinnacle of human nobility; self-sacrifice.
On the opposite end of the material pole is the spiritual pole. This is true personality. This is the human aspects of “liberty and bountifulness”(JM). This is the human will to improve themselves and thus society as a whole. St. Thomas says that “whosoever loves God must love himself for the sake of God, must love his own soul and body with a love of charity.” The human person’s nobility is centered on the spiritual pole and that desire of charity and the common good.
Maritain not only believes that the human person is precarious and noble, but that they are the most precarious and most noble of all creatures. This brings up the distinction between the human person and other animals. Humans have something that animals don’t have which is that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Maritain points this out in The Person and the Common Good by saying, “In intellectual creatures alone, Aquinas teaches further, is found the image of God. In no other creature, not even in the universe as a whole, is this found.”
An example of human precariousness that animals do not have is our ability for destruction. During World War II one man carried out the execution of more than five million Jewish people. No animal has the selfish, purely evil ability to do this. It was a self-centered act to try to achieve one man’s vision of his “perfect world”. Animals do not do things just for themselves. They do things to benefit their society as a whole. Whenever they kill something for food they eat all of it. When humans go out hunting for sport they kill things just for the sake of killing. Animals do not have this innate capacity for selfishness like humans do.
An example of human nobility that animals do not have is the human relationship with God in the Beatific vision. “The beatific vision is therefore the supremely personal act by which the soul, transcending absolutely every sort of created common good, enters into the very bliss of God and draws its life from the uncreated Good, the divine essence itself, the uncreated common Good of the three Divine Persons” (JM). As human beings we are able to have this oneness with God at the end times that animals cannot share in because they do not have an intellect like humans have.
Humans are very complex beings. In them consists a balance between the spiritual and material poles. The mystery of who we are lies in between the two. We have a desire for contemplation to move up the pole and strive for a oneness with God. We also have a desire for incarnation and the earthly aspects of our life. “We have a desire for beauty, peace, friendship, and love which does not depend on the subconscious but on what comes from above” (AMS). We need to keep our minds focused on what is above and what awaits our soul in the sharing of the beatific vision.
In doing this we have to respect our configuration of mind, body, and soul. The soul is the organizer of the person. The mind is a speculative expression of the body and the soul. The body is a physical expression of the soul. The relationship between these three things mirrors the trinity. One cannot exist without the other; the whole human being is mind, body, and soul. “Your body is the splendor of the presence of God” (JM). In recognizing our creation as from God we will be able to make the most of our life in our contribution to society.
Ultimately our role on earth is “to change the universe, to bring it back to where it was before original sin” (AMS). This is our human nobility; our desire to improve. We are called to say yes to God in our lives and make contributions to society that improve it and thus bring it closer to God. “Everyone reflects the whole human configuration” (MM). This is not something we should take lightly. We are the stewards of the earth; we are the most precarious and noblest of all creatures.