DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON AND ILLUMINISM

BETWEEN UNIVERSALITY AND EXCLUSION

Abstract

This present study will provide an overview of the approach developed by European Illuminism in relation to the ideals of freedom and equality, central to understanding the concept of human dignity. However, this approach is immersed in several contradictions regarding the application of these same ideals to black people, used as slave labor in the colonies belonging to the main European metropolises. Within this panorama is Immanuel Kant. Despite being one of the main philosophers to work on the concept of human dignity, his vision in relation to people distributed across the globe, especially Africans, leads to a different conclusion regarding the universality of his theory. Furthermore, the fact that this same author is one of the precursors of the development of the science of races in his anthropological studies, dividing human beings into different strata, according to their biological characteristics, leads us to question the real recipients of human dignity.

Keywords: Illuminism; Slavery; Haitian Revolution; The dignity of a human person; Kant; Race Science.