A phrase like "respect for the dignity of man" is fondly used. But it is not necessarily clear what is meant here by man and what is respectable in man. When respect for the dignity of man or vindication of humanity is spoken of, man in his totality is presupposed. Here the word totality must be understood as in the French word l'homme total or in the German word der totale Mensch. If there is any danger of this totality of man being eclipsed, we must be ready to safeguard the totality of man. What then is the total man? To answer this question, let me start from the actual man (das menschliche Dasein), which denotes our existence as it is in daily life. It finds itself always in a certain historical situation. It is therefore defined as a being-in-the historical situation. I propose to describe the actual man, which is thus defined, as human reality. Human reality must be analytically considered under two different conditions: (1) the social-historical condition and (2) the existential-individual condition. The former is the same for all members belonging to one social group. The latter refers itself to the particular being of each individual and thus posits human existence. Either the one or the other falls short of the full definition of human reality, the totality of which consists in the twofold construction, as mentioned above. Man as defined fully by these two conditions is the total man. It is an ideal man. From the actual man as the starting point, the two conditions of human reality have thus led us to the total man as an ideal through the path of analysis and integration. How then can the fulness of the total man as an ideal be reached? Here, the concept of mankind comes in as the intermediary. On the one hand, mankind is an ideal. On the other hand, however, it is reality in the historical concept of the community of man. I believe, therefore, that the intermediary concept of mankind will elucidate the relationship between the actual man and the total man.
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