Social Freedom and Dignity of the Human Person According to Nikolai Berdyaev

Abstract

Contemporary European democracies, and liberalism in particular, are established upon the foundations of humanism. Humanism, as its name entails, denotes the elevation of the human being and setting up of the person to the centre of the universe. Humanism was a reaction against the mediaeval view of the omnipotent and omniscient God, and seeks an understanding of the human being that would fulfil his/her intuitive desire for genuine human dignity. What kind of freedom would be sufficient and adequate for true human dignity? Faced with this radical understanding of freedom, which originates from, and is dictated by, the deepest realms of the human being, most humanist thinkers chose to reject both God and the idea of the divine icon. Humanism denied man’s divine sonship and proclaimed that man is the son of nature. Hence, Humanism not only declared man’s self-confidence, but it also debased him, by defining him as a product of natural necessity. Liberalism, argues the Russian philosopher Berdyaev, has created a ‘single-plane’ being, it has separated the citizen from the integral personality, by refusing to admit the spiritual dimension of the human being. Berdyaev stresses that true freedom cannot be simply a formal self-defence, but that it must rather lead to creative activity. This is why the transition is inevitable from formal liberty, which protects us and defends us, to true freedom capable not only of creatively transforming the human society but also of creating a new world.

Savremene evropske demokratije, a posebno učenje liberalizma, počivaju na načelima evropskog humanizma. Humanizam se javlja kao reakcija na srednjevekovno učenje o božanskoj svemoći koja je u suprotnosti sa dostojanstvom ljudskog bića kao ikone Božije. Posledica reakcije je da se sada ljudsko biće postavlja u središte Univerzuma. U potpunosti se odbacuje metafizička dimenzija ljudskog bića koje sada postaje sin prirode a time i nužnosti. Humanizam pokušava da stvori novi pojam ljudskog dostojanstva, ali dok uzdiže ljudsko biće istovremeno ga i unižava budući da je rob prirodnih nužnosti. Po ruskom religioznom filozofu Nikolaju Berđajevu, istinsko dostojanstvo dolazi od istinite slobode koje se ne sastoji samo u moći da se preobrazi društvo već i da se stvori novi svet.