Human dignity, the struggle for recognition and the precariousness of labor relations in Brazil

Abstract

The present work intends to carry out a historical and philosophical investigation of the concept of dignity. The Latin term dignitas has always been linked to republican ideas since Ancient Rome, but it was in the Middle Ages that legal science, closely linked to theology, formulated one of the pillars of the theory of sovereignty, namely, the perpetual character of political power. Dignity then emancipated itself from its bearer and became a fictitious person, a kind of mystical body that is placed next to the real body of the magistrate. In Modernity, from Kant onwards, dignity is based on autonomy, assuming the presence of a moral legislating will, in which each human being needs to feel subjected to reasonable and internally coercive moral demands. Since then, the concept of dignity appears in the Constitutions of many countries, including the Federal Constitution in force in Brazil since 1988. Despite being embodied in national legislation, dignity ends up suffering setbacks due to interference from the political world, in this sense, the Labor Reform 2017, with its promises to improve employment and income in Brazil, ended up violating the basic principles of the notion of dignity. Critical Theory and the works of Axel Honneth are fundamental to think about the precariousness of labor relations in Brazil and the possibility of overcoming these obstacles by the working class through the struggle for recognition.