Applying “Dignity” in the Light of the Concept’s Typologies (original) (raw)
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Dignity and the Form of Human Existence
HELLENIC-SERBIAN PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE SERIES, 2022
This paper aims at showing that Human Dignity is neither something that exists separately from human being, nor a property, or an abstract idea, but as a relation between a human being and their own knowledge of the form of human existence, which can be expressed as the form 'I.' In other words, human dignity means that a person acknowledges that they owe the formed aspect of her existence to the form 'I.' Because human beings cannot actualise the form 'I' in a self-sufficient manner, the violation of the dignity of one person derogates also the dignity of the person or the persons who are causing it. This means that if I debase someone, I debase also myself because I impair my own knowledge of the form 'I.' In other words, my dignity relation to the form 'I' obliges me to acknowledge and to respect the dignity relation of any other human being. The problems arising from the cognitivist concept of dignity disappear if one takes into account that this concept only says that in order for dignity to exist there must exist at least one full-fledged cognizing person. As long as one human being in the world is able to have direct knowledge of the form 'I' every other human is entitled to dignity, even if the rest of humanity were not in position to realise this fact. Human dignity cannot thus be determined as an individual human right, but as a duty of every person against herself and any other human being.
Using functionalist and genealogical frames of analysis, this article separates the function that dignity has served in law's self-legitimation from the functions that dignity plays in legal discourse. These modes of understanding dignity's function are related, but are apt to fuel scepticism about dignity if they are conflated. Dignity is an ideal challenging the idea of law as the will of the sovereign; and it is an ideal enriching law's construction of personhood. For different, systemic, reasons, dignity is a norm with unique discursive properties: it is principle, heuristic, and a peremptory norm. These differences are thrown into relief when 'function' is conceptualised in competing genealogical and functionalist terms. To the extent that these frames of reference are reconcilable, they point to dignity's core function as the disruption of law's dominant conception of sovereignty. We can conclude that dignity is a concept with problematic characteri...
Perspectives on Human Dignity (Springer, 2007), 43 - 58.
This paper explores two conceptions of dignity - a traditional one and a more modern one - and explores the question of whether our contemporary notions of dignity provide a coherent foundation for the idea of human rights. The version here was later revised for publication in Jeff Malpas and Norelle Lickiss (eds) Perspectives on Human Dignity, Springer 2007)
Dignity - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2023
What exactly is dignity? Do its different connotations hang together in any principled way? Does dignity understood as "universal human worth", for example, have any meaningful connection to "social rank" or "personal integrity"? Is dignity primarily a moral concept or a political and legal one? Even assuming we can make sense of its different meanings, what does dignity demand of us? What does it mean to recognize or respect it? Does it ground rights? If so, which ones? And where does the idea of dignity come from? What, in other words, is its history? This entry takes up these questions. The goal is to provide a general guide to existing theory and debate, with a focus on philosophical approaches to human dignity, and mostly as it figures into the western tradition. (Direct Link: https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=dignity)
In contemporary world there are a lot of idea of dignity and we can observe many differences in the perception and interpretation of it. One can find many reasons for this discrepancy. While focusing on the most important human rights, the authors want to demonstrate that, despite the many changes that have occurred in recent decades, the idea of human rights is essential to human dignity. For these reasons, we believe that the nature of human rights require its re-examination in the prism of human dignity. Analysis of philosophical, cultural and legal contexts in which a concept of dignity occurs, may contribute to a better understanding of what dignity is and what is not. Above all, may allow reflection on the crisis of dignity of the XXI century human. Dignity is a type of value that co-creates the sense of human life, directs to a specific goal, and also regulates interpersonal connections. Here, the authors analyze dignity in the context of specific concepts of man to show the relations between dignity and the eternal question: " who am I in the light of my rights? " Secondarily, we show how crucial contextual and hermeneutical thinking is, while studying fundamental concepts of human experiences such as dignity. The analysis of the subject carried out by experts in fields of legal and philosophical sciences, based on the common foundation, which is an individual and his life, points to many critical issues that need to be thoroughly evaluated, as long as the subject is approached holistically.
Eidos: A Journal for the Philosophy of Culture, 2019
It stands to reason that a criterion is needed that can serve as a common denominator for weighing or assessing different values or ideals. Dignity is offered as a possible candidate, to be presented from religio-legal and cross-cultural vantages. A definition will be offered for dignity and its parts defended throughout the paper. The approach is not only not rigorously analytic -there are no case studies -but is instead a presentation of topic areas where we should expect to find the concept of dignity to be relevant. Utilizing a rights-moral and duties-ethical framework, it is in essence an argument for further elevating the prestige of dignity so that it might provide a widely-accepted groundwork for ethics and morality.
Human Dignity: Between the Existentialist and the Essentialist Approaches
Filosofija. Sociologija, 2019
Human dignity is an important part of Western culture, which has spread over the world, and theses on it can be considered in and applied to various spheres of human life and whole societies. In this paper, a selected aspect of dignity is undertaken, namely, how we get to know and understand dignity. This aspect is considered by per-sonalists and other philosophers interested in shedding some light on human dignity. Two approaches to the matter are adopted and contrasted: existentialist and essential-ist. The former stresses how dignity is discovered and how it exists in its very essence, via experience and phenomenological insight. The latter concentrates on the description of personal characteristics and other relevant factors, which result in a thesis on dignity. In the conclusions, the author points out that these two approaches should not be considered as alternatives contending with each other but rather narratives complementing one another.