Human Dignity and Minimal Subsistence: The Possibilities of Legitimation and Limitation of a Normative Minimal Standard

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Of the many minimal standards that determine mutual behavioral expectations in different spheres of life, some are of the highest legal and moral relevance. In legal discourse a concept of human dignity that constitutes the inviolable 'core content' of fundamental rights - rights that are in other aspects legally restrictable - frequently comes into play. Analogically, a series of philosophical conceptions of ethics draw on the principle of human dignity in order to mark out a core of moral claims that demand particular regard within the moral sphere, such as human rights. Despite all the criticism regarding the idea of human dignity, in specific argumentation contexts human dignity is evidently given credit for a twofold normative function: on one hand this idea is intended to serve as a 'source' or legitimizing foundation for normative minimal standards; on the other hand it is also expected to restrict the type and scope of the concomitant claims in a rational manner. Many contributions to socio- and legal-political controversies, but also to bioethical ones, draw on this stratification function, at least implicitly. So far the moral-philosophical debate has been revolving primarily around the derivation or justification of basic rights using the principle of human dignity. The reverse problem, however, of limiting such rights becomes more urgent as 'human dignity' becomes more distinctly interpreted as grounding the rights of social participation. Even though this type of claims is still considered a second priority precisely because of their structural vagueness, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany opened a new path in 2010 and 2012 by constitutionally establishing a subjective right to a guaranteed humane minimal subsistence. The research project takes this development as an imputes to make clear the stratifying capability of the concept of human dignity in a comparative study of relevant current philosophical conceptions by using the example of humane minimal existence. At the same time, a general contribution is to be made to the understanding of the principle of human dignity in its established variants of interpretations, to uncover its implications, and to further the transparency of its ethical and legal application.