Starting Again from Human Needs: The Organismic Foundation of Jean-Pol Martin's New Human Rights

What changes when our conception of the human being becomes the starting point for rethinking society? This conceptual paper explains in what sense Jean-Pol Martin’s New Human Rights (NHR; German: Neue Menschenrechte, NMR) propose such a new beginning. The framework takes the living, thinking, social and meaning-oriented human organism as its reference point. Six interdependent and equally ranked basic needs guide the assessment of social arrangements: thinking, health, security, social inclusion, self-realization and participation, and meaning. Thinking also performs a central regulatory function through information processing, conceptualization and anticipation. The paper’s specific contribution is to make this organismic foundation explicit and clarify its consequences for the justification of institutions. Schools, public administrations and workplaces are examined in relation to the conditions they provide for maintaining and developing human life. Learning by Teaching (LdL) illustrates how this conception of the human being can inform educational practice. Within Martin’s publication series, the article connects the anthropological foundation of NHR with institutional evaluation and participatory social design. It also outlines an open programme of collective inquiry for the emerging school of thought. The article reconstructs and clarifies an existing theoretical framework; it does not report a new empirical study or claim historical priority. Conceptual basis: Jean-Pol Martin. Drafting and synthesis: ChatGPT in dialogue with Jean-Pol Martin.