Knowing people inside and out is essential for exercising authority over them. The fields of psychology and sociology provide a significant amount of content in the many books that deal with people management. However, one must be aware that real diamonds are hundreds of times more precious than fakes in order to treat them properly.
The spiritual nature of human beings
In the end, it’s quite challenging to precisely pinpoint animal operations that should be impossible to imitate artificially. Men, however, are more than just “bodies”; while they are inherently animal or physical, they are capable of abstract knowledge and free will, neither of which a body could do. They make sense only if man possesses a spiritual (i.e., non-material) ability. To explain why humans can think abstractly, we must postulate the existence of a spiritual dimension in man. If our thoughts were made of nothing but matter, then they too would be completely determined by physical causes and conditions.
Every particle’s location and state in the cosmos are fixedly predetermined in a purely material universe. As a result, we can never be sure that the conclusions we draw from premises are justified by those premises when we engage in any form of deductive reasoning. Insights like “Barack Obama is the present President of the United States” and “two things equaling a third are inevitably equal to each other” are only possible because of the spiritual aspect of man. The fact that a man can make his own decisions demonstrates his spiritual character as well.
Human beings are persons:
Chimpanzees and lions are not people. Men, angels, and God are people. Because referring to a being as a person implies that it is logical.Classically, a person is “an individual substance of rational nature.” As shown in these and previous notes, man’s rationality makes him unique in the cosmos. We may now summarize our previous analysis of what makes humans special:
- Animals lack human knowledge. Only man can understand abstract knowledge.
- Freedom—or self-determination—sets humans apart from other creatures. Humans may choose their own path, unlike animals, who are controlled by their physiological demands and the incentives and penalties of their environment. At its most extreme, this capacity for resolve lets people organize their entire lives and dedicate themselves to science, politics, religion, or another person. Animals cannot control their lives and dedicate them to a greater goal.
- Humans have far more options to find fulfillment than animals. Art, friendship, love, religion, and politics suffice.
- As shown above, all of these capacities mean that humans are significantly superior to animals. Humans are spiritual beings, whereas animals are complex mechanical beings.This spiritual aspect is why most wisdom traditions believe man is immortal. This is because animal death involves dismemberment. Same with a man’s body. How can a spirit die without parts?
Each individual human being has an eternal destiny, has been hand-picked by God, and possesses a spiritual essence endowed with intellect and freedom that places him far beyond any other animal. Everything taken into account, the worth and worthiness of a single human being are incomparably greater than those of any other object in the known cosmos.
Practical consequences of the dignity of human persons
- As many philosophers and religious scholars from various schools of thought and religions have argued in numerous ways, men should never be “used” for my own or others’ ends. Thus, they must be respected. Management requires this. Managers can become so focused on achieving their goals that they view their employees as tools. This propensity can only be corrected by a strong understanding that people are not “assets,” but people.
- Any man must respect his freedom since he is the architect of his eternal destiny, whether he accepts it or not. Men can be proposed to, but not forced or influenced.Of course, this doesn’t mean one should keep paying them and letting them stay in the organization if they don’t contribute or cause problems. However, humans should be able to design their own lives.
- Human dignity is the only solid foundation for basic equality: people differ greatly in intelligence, productivity, health, strength, beauty, and so on.The traits they share outweigh their differences.
- Human dignity has many crucial implications for how to manage people. Besides those already mentioned, people must be led in ways that convey their worth and potential so clearly that they perceive them in themselves. This includes listening, involving them, and affirming them.
