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 Statement
Of Principles For Economic Personalism
- Dignity of the Person
- Social Nature of the Person
- Importance of Social Institutions
- Human Action
- Subsidiary Role of Government
- Creation of Wealth
- Economic Liberty
- Economic Value
- Priority of Culture
- Significance of Interdisciplinary Work
Dignity of the Person - The human person,
by virtue of being created imago Dei, is an independent substance,
individually unique, rational, the subject of moral agency, and
a co-creator. Accordingly, he possesses intrinsic value and dignity,
implying certain rights and duties with respect to the recognition
and protection of the dignity of himself and other persons. These
truths about the dignity of the human person are known through revelation,
but they are also discernible through reason.
Social Nature of the Person - Although persons
can find ultimate fulfillment only in communion with God, one essential
aspect of the development of persons is our social nature and capacity
for action directed to disinterested ends. The person achieves fulfillment
through participation in moral goods that are at the root of human
flourishing, and interaction with other persons. There are voluntary
relations of exchange, for example, such as market transactions
that fundamentally realize economic value. But these relations of
exchange may also give rise to moral value as well. There are also
voluntary relations of mutual dependence, such as promises, friendships,
marriages, and the family, which fundamentally constitute moral
goods. But these, too, may also coincide with the realization of
other sorts of value, such as religious, economic, aesthetic, and
so on.
Importance of Social Institutions - Owing
to the social nature of the person, various social institutions
have developed within human societies. The institutions of civil
society, especially the family, are the primary sources of a society’s
moral culture. While these social institutions are neither created
by nor derive their legitimacy from the state, government must both
respect their autonomy and provide the support necessary to ensure
the free and orderly operation of all social institutions in their
respective spheres.
Human Action - Human persons are by nature
acting persons. Through human action, the person is able to actualize
his potentiality by freely choosing the moral goods that fulfill
his nature.
Subsidiary Role of Government - The government’s
primary responsibility is to promote the common good, that is, to
maintain the rule of law, and to preserve basic duties and rights.
Although the government’s role is not to usurp free actions,
it must attempt to minimize those conflicts that may arise when
the free actions of persons and social institutions result in competing
interests. This responsibility should be conducted according to
the principle of subsidiarity. This principle has two components.
First, jurisdictionally broader institutions must refrain from usurping
the proper functions that should be performed autonomously by the
person and institutions more immediate to him. Second, jurisdictionally
broader institutions should assist individual persons and institutions
more immediate to the person when these are incapable of performing
their proper functions until such time as they can resume these
proper functions.
Creation of Wealth - Material impoverishment
undermines the conditions that facilitate human flourishing. The
most effective means of reducing poverty is to protect private property
rights by means of the rule of law. This will give people the opportunity
to enter into voluntary exchange circles in which to express the
creative dimension of their nature as persons.
Economic Liberty - Liberty, in a positive
sense, is achieved by fulfilling one’s nature as a person by
virtue of having freely chosen to do what one ought. Economic liberty
is a species of liberty so-stated. As such, the bearer of economic
liberty has not only certain rights, but also duties. An economically
free person, for example, must be free to enter the market voluntarily.
Hence, there is a duty on the part of those who have the power to
interfere with the market to remove any artificial barrier to entry
in the market, and also to protect private property rights as well
as shared property. But the economically free person will also bear
the duty to others to participate in the market as a moral agent
and in accordance with moral goods. It is crucial, then, that the
law guarantees private property rights and voluntary exchange.
Economic Value - In economic theory, economic
value is subjective because its existence depends on it being felt
by a subject. Economic value is the significance that a subject
attaches to a thing whenever he perceives a causal connection between
this thing and the satisfaction of a present, urgent want. But the
subject may be wrong in his value judgment such that he attributes
value to a thing that, in fact, will not or cannot satisfy his present,
urgent want. The truth of economic value judgments is settled by
those facts about the thing that make it the case that it can satisfy
the relevant want as expected by the agent. While this does not
imply the realization of any other sort of value by virtue of its
economic value, the latter is not incompatible with the simultaneous
realization of moral value in the thing by virtue of its objective
moral goodness.
Priority of Culture - Liberty flourishes
in a society supported by a moral culture that embraces the truth
about the transcendent origin and destiny of the human person. This
moral culture leads to harmony and the proper ordering of society.
While the various institutions within the political, economic, and
other spheres are important, the family is the primary inculcator
of the moral culture in a society.
Significance of Interdisciplinary Work
- The fundamental task of every discipline is to seek truth. Although
each discipline is confined to a specific area of investigation,
the truths discovered by any one discipline cannot contradict those
discovered by another. This assertion is itself founded on a truth
of logic called the Principle of Non-Contradiction. According to
this principle, if it is the case that something is, then it cannot
simultaneously be the case that it is not. Nonetheless, reconciling
the claims of different disciplines is a difficult project. But
if the claims are valid and sound, they must be ultimately compatible
and thus broaden our understanding of the world. Herein lies the
significance of academic cooperation among scholars who specialize
in areas pertaining to different disciplines.
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