Prawo naturalne a prawa człowieka: stanowisko Bertholda Walda

Abstract

The article presents Berthold Wald’s views on the foundations of human rights. The author shares the views of the German thinker that the basis of these laws is the natural law, which in modern culture is neglected, contributing to the errors of embodying human dignity and freedom. Wald, in the author’s view, in an original way shows the rational and universal nature of the vision of the natural law of Thomas Aquinas as a source of human rights. He emphasizes that in the experience of one’s self you can read both the truth about this law and human rights. This makes this concept sound convincing and understandable for everyone, regardless of their temporal, cultural or philosophical background. For Walt, as for Mieczyslaw A. Krąpiec, the subject of rights is every human being because of his personal dignity, understood in a classical way, that is justified in human nature and not in its own qualities. In his presentation of the position of the German thinker, the author of the article exposes and delineates certain themes: defining natural law as a source of human rights and experiencing one’s own self in all aspects concerned and showing the dignity of the person as the foundation of rights.