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[av_heading heading=’VIEWPOINTS | Economic plus human dev’t’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY OSCAR CRUZ
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Saturday, April 29, 2017
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LET IT be said first and foremost that the present and actual economic development of a country – the Philippines well-included – has its impact and influence more in the upcoming generations than the actual population.
In the same way, the more human rights are respected or violated here and now, the more the said affirmation or derogation of human rights become respectively better or worse in the times yet to come. It is wherefore in good order to mention even but the following few relevant factors:
The question or the issue of economy is only but one aspect and one dimension of the whole human activity. The life of man, just like the social life of the community, may not be legitimately reduced to its mere economic perspective – such as simply in terms of economic abundance or want.
So it is that food, shelter, and clothing are definitely the basic needs of men, women, and children. But being not merely a brute animal but a thinking and feeling creature, while a good economy is something to be appreciated, every human being however needs much more than what merely economic factors can give and/or provide him/her.
So it is that while man has his corporal constitution, he certainly also has his spiritual, intellectual, and volitional integrated needs which material goods per se cannot duly and satisfactorily respond to – without denying that in the absence of temporal goods, developing his humanity such as his reason and will functions, his ethical and moral value system is a rather huge challenge if not big futility. So it is rightly said that empty stomach has no ears.
So it is that in singling out man’s new needs requiring new means to accordingly respond thereto, those particularly in tenure of the national government must be guided by a comprehensive picture of man which is rightfully concerned with all the dimensions of his being and which subordinates his material and instinctive demands to his interior and spiritual needs – something exactly the opposite in the world of brute animals.
In other words, yes, let there be continuous economic development. At the same time however, let man’s spiritual and ethical needs be accordingly responded to as well.
And so it is that as commonly known and repeatedly said, in order of their ascendancy, after the minerals come the plants; after the plant kingdom comes the animal kingdom; and on top of them all is man who has the attributions of all the former plus the mind and the will in addition to his soul and spirit intimately relevant to his mental and volitional faculties.
On account of such a distinct nature and significant features of man, it stands to reason that while he certainly has his instinctive drive to attend, to control and to develop the world of economy, he furthermore requires progressive educational and cultural formation to affirm and enhance his human nature together with his human dignity./PN
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