Description
In everything from philosophical ethics to legal argument to public activism, it has become commonplace to appeal to the idea of human dignity. In such contexts, the concept of dignity typically signifies something like the fundamental moral status belonging to all humans. Remarkably, however, it is only in the last century that this meaning of the term has become standardized. Before this, dignity was instead a concept associated with social status. Unfortunately, this transformation remains something of a mystery in existing scholarship. Exactly when and why did "dignity" change its meaning? And before this change, was it truly the case that we lacked a conception of human worth akin to the one that "dignity" now represents? In this volume, leading scholars across a range of disciplines attempt to answer such questions by clarifying the presently murky history of "dignity," from classical Greek thought through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment to the present day.
Table of Contents
Introduction Remy DebesChapter 1. Dignity in Homer and Classical Greece Patrice RankineChapter 2. Dignity in Roman and Stoic Thought Miriam GriffinReflection: Dignity in Confucian and Buddhist Thought David WongChapter 3. Dignity After the Fall Bonnie KentChapter 4. Islamic Conceptions of Dignity: Historical Trajectories and Paradigms Mustafa ShahChapter 5. Dignity, Vile Bodies and Nakedness: Giovanni Pico and Giannozzo Manetti Brian CopenhaverReflection: Portraiture, Social Positioning, and Displays of Dignity in Early Modern London Edward TownChapter 6. Equal Dignity and Rights Stephen DarwallChapter 7. Human Dignity Before Kant: Denis Diderot's Passionate Person Remy DebesChapter 8. Dignity: Kant's Revolutionary Conception Oliver SensenReflection: A Time For Dignity Charles MillsChapter 9. Bourgeois Dignity: Making the Self-Made Man Christine HendersonReflection: Taking refuge from history in morality: Marx, Morality, and Dignity Somogy VargaChapter 10. Universalizing Dignity in the Nineteenth Century Mikka LaVaque-MantyReflection: Why Bioethics isn't Ready for Human Dignity Marcus DüwellChapter 11. Sympathy and Dignity in Early Africana Philosophy Bernie BoxillReflection: Death and Dignity in American Law Emma Kaufman
