Undergraduate / human personality, law - University of Chicago essay [6]

hey everyone this was my uchicago essay plzz comment...

Essay Option 2: "Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust," wrote the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." What is "human personality?" Is it obvious what uplifts and what degrades it? Can law be justified on the basis of it? We want to hear your thoughts on justice as it relates to this human personality.

Cogito Ergo Sum-I think therefore I am. This is a philosophical truism that speaks profoundly to the existence of a human personality. From a scientific vantage one need only have mass and occupy space to exist. However through a more social and analytical lens a precondition to human existence is that one must, in addition to being physically material, think and or question his existence. The capacity of the human personality to satisfy this requirement is incontrovertible as it is this ubiquitous sense of "somebody-ness" that allows one to think or question his existence and to therefore 'exist' within the social realm. Simply put: human personality is the embodiment of one's sense of "somebody-ness", the irrefutable and universal right one person has to call himself a living creature.

The abasement of the human personality is a feature of my country's history. For over 300 years West Africans and their descendants endured the evils and disenchantment of slavery one of the most institutionalised forms of human degradation. The positive law within this context was justifiable on the premise of democracy and public will however as it pertains morals and equality it was undeniably unjust. Prima facie, it is easy to misappropriate or wrongfully equate democracy with equality. The frequence with which this faux pas has been made notwithstanding, history has proven repeatedly that this is a perilous mistake. As the will of the 'majority' has been used to justify or qualify the exploitation and devaluation of a 'minority'.

The question is therefore what makes law justifiable? Is it the will of the 'majority' ?, Public interest?, or is it the equity it dispenses?

Situations or laws that devoid men of their basic "human rights...", "human dignity...", "constitutional rights..." and "human personality..." are unjust. Institutions that deride the human creature of his ability to believe in, or at least question, his own existence and worth are unjust. Apartheid, the aftermath of Pearl Harbour and the holocaust imperil the human personality. Xenophobia, Slavery, homophobia and Racial Prejudice disembowel the human personality.

In as much as Dr. King believed in the "sanctity of life" and by extension the human personality and its inevitable upliftment so too am I compelled, by a similar moral suasion and by common sensibilities, to affirm the importance of the human personality in the determination of society's norms and the ultimate validation or justification of the positive law. The upliftment of the human personality within the historical context of the civil rights movement, in my estimation, refers to the "...rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood...[the rise from] the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity". A discernable copula exists between this quotation and Dr. King's overall opinion on the upliftment of human personality and Descartes' philosophy on man and his existence. I submit that if man is able to recognise his reflection as that resembling man, so much so that he is then able to contemplate or even question his own existence then, and only then, has he been uplifted into human existence.

In my opinion the upliftment of human personality may be explicated summarily by the French battle cry: liberté, égalité, fraternité. Without liberty one ceases to live for himself and his capacity to cogitate freely is abrogated. Without equality one looses the will to live and the capacity to think freely. Without brotherhood one is left desolate and derelict of other human life and counsel.

Law is neither justifiable exclusively on the basis of democracy nor is it on the premise that it protects the 'interests of the majority'. A Law can only be vindicated by its capacity to uplift the human personalities of the people it restricts. The human personality is the raison d'ętre of the law and I believe that true Justice demands that the human voice and personality be at the fulcrum of the law.