object:1.12 - SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE RIGHTS OF MAN
book class:The Future of Man
author class:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
subject class:Christianity
subject class:Science
class:chapter
CHAPTER 12
SOME REFLECTIONS ON
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
AS first proclaimed, in 1789, the Rights of
Man were primarily an expression of the individ-
ual will to autonomy — "Everything for the Individ-
ual within Society" — implying that the human race
was designed to unfold and culminate in a multi-
plicity of units achieving, each in itself, their maxi-
mum development. This seems to have been the
ruling preoccupation and vision of the eighteenth-
century humanitarians.
Since then, however, owing to the increasing
importance of the various forms of collectivity in
human society, the nature of the problem has pro-
foundly changed. We can no longer doubt this. For
innumerable convergent reasons (the rapid in-
crease of ethnic, economic, political and cultural
links) the human individual finds himself defini-
tively involved in an irresistible process tending
toward a system of organopsychic solidarity on
earth. Whether we wish it or not, Mankind is be-
coming collectivized, totalized under the influence
of psychic and spiritual forces on a planetary scale.
Out of this has arisen, in the heart of every man,
SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE RIGHTS OF MAN 189
the present-day conflict between the individual, ever more con-
scious of his individual worth, and social affiliations which become
ever more demanding.
But the conflict, if we think of it, is only one of appearance. Bi-
ologically, as we know, the human unit is not self-sufficing. In other
words it is not in isolation (as we might have supposed) but only in ap-
propriate association with his fellows that the individual can hope to
attain to the fullness of his personality, his energies, his power of action
and his consciousness, more especially since we do not become com-
pletely "reflective" (that is to say, "men") except by being reflected in
each other. Collectivization and individualization (in the sense of
personality, not of social autonomy) are thus not opposed principles.
The problem is so to order matters as to ensure that human totaliza-
tion is brought about, not by the pressure of external forces, but
through the internal workings of harmonization and sympathy.
It at once becomes clear, when we adopt this altered stand-
point, that the purpose of a new Declaration of the Rights of Man
cannot be, as formerly, to ensure the highest possible degree of in-
dependence for the individual in society, but to define the condi-
tions under which the inevitable totalization of Mankind may be
effected, not only without impairing but so as to enhance, I will not
say the autonomy of each of us but (a quite different thing) the in-
communicable singularity of being which each of us possesses.
We must no longer seek to organize the world in favor of, and
in terms of, the isolated individual; we must try to combine all
things for the perfection ("personalization") of the individual by
his well-ordered integration with the unified group in which
Mankind must eventually culminate, both organically and spiritu-
ally. That is the problem.
Thus transposed into the framework of an operation with two
variables (the progressive, interdependent adjustment of the two
processes of collectivization and personalization) the question of
190 THE FUTURE OF MAN
the Rights of Man admits of no simple or general answer. But we
can at least say that any proposed solution must satisfy the follow-
ing conditions:
a The individual in a human society in process of collective
organization has not the right to remain inactive, that is to say not
to seek to develop himself to his fullest extent: because upon his in-
dividual perfection depends the perfection of all his fellows.
b Society embracing the individuals which comprise it, must
in its own interest be so constituted that it tends to create the most
favorable environment for the full development (physical and spir-
itual) of what is special to each of them. A commonplace indeed:
but one where it is impossible to lay down rules for particular cases,
since they vary according to the level of education and the pro-
gressive value of the diverse elements to be organized.
c Whatever measures may be adopted to this end, there is one
major principle which must be affirmed and always upheld: in no
circumstances, and for no reason, must the forces of collectivity
compel the individual to deform or falsify himself (by accepting as
true what he sees to be false, for example, which is to lie to him-
self). Every limitation imposed on the autonomy of the element by
the power of the group must, if it is to be justified, operate only in
conformity with the free internal structure of the element. Other-
wise a fundamental disharmony will arise in the very heart of the
collective human organism.
Three principles therefore:
The absolute duty of the individual to develop his own per-
sonality.
SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE RIGHTS OF MAN 191
The relative right of the individual to be placed in circum-
stances as favorable as possible to his personal development.
The absolute right of the individual, within the social organ-
ism, not to be deformed by external coercion but inwardly super-
organized by persuasion, that is to say, in conformity with his
personal endowments and aspirations.
Three principles to be explicitly affirmed and guaranteed in
any new Charter of Humanity.
PARIS, MARCH 22, 1947. UNESCO 1949, PP. 88-Q.
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