The Personalist Concept of Human Dignity and Views on Human Nature in Economics

Anna Horodecka; Andrzej J. Żuk

doi:10.18290/pepsi-2024-0013

Published : 2025-09-25

Vol. 30 No. 2 (2024)

The Personalist Concept of Human Dignity and Views on Human Nature in Economics

Anna Horodecka

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5887-5799

Andrzej J. Żuk

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7984-4382

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/pepsi-2024-0013

Abstract

The concept of human dignity not only arouses considerable interest among theologians and philosophers but also among scholars from other disciplines, including lawyers, historians, sociologists, and psychologists. It plays a fundamental role in understanding social life and guiding political actions. Since economics is a social science, a question arises as to whether and how it incorporates the issue of human dignity into its theories. This article aims to analyze the understanding of human dignity in contemporary schools and currents of economic thought. The authors, drawing on the rich tradition of the concept, developed especially in Christian personalism, have formulated their own concept of human dignity (the personalist concept of human dignity), which served as a basis for analyzing various concepts of human nature in economics. Images of human nature play a key role in shaping economic assumptions and enable the creation of theories in this field. In turn, human dignity is inextricably linked to the concept of human nature. The analyses conducted allowed us to prove the thesis that the perception of human nature concerning its dignity in contemporary schools and currents of economics is heterogeneous. Numerous weaknesses were also demonstrated regarding the perception of human nature and human dignity especially within the dominant concept of homo oeconomicus.

Keywords:

human dignity, Christian personalism, Catholic social teaching, homo oeconomicus, heterodox economics, humanistic economics, personalist economics

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Horodecka, A., & Żuk, A. J. (2025). The Personalist Concept of Human Dignity and Views on Human Nature in Economics. Journal for Perspectives of Economic Political and Social Integration, 30(2), 133–164. https://doi.org/10.18290/pepsi-2024-0013

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