Dignity: A HistoryRemy Debes Oxford University Press, 2017 - 408 pages 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. |
Contents
1 Dignity in Homer and Classical Greece Patrice Rankine | 19 |
2 Dignity in Roman and Stoic Thought Miriam Griffin | 47 |
Reflection Dignity in Confucian and Buddhist Thought David B Wong | 67 |
Human Dignity after the Fall Bonnie Kent | 73 |
Historical Trajectories and Paradigms Mustafa Shah | 99 |
Giovanni Pico and Giannozzo Manetti Brian Copenhaver | 127 |
Reflection Portraiture Social Positioning and Displays of Dignity in Early Modern London Edward Town | 175 |
6 Equal Dignity and Rights Stephen Darwall | 181 |
Reflection A Time for Dignity Charles W Mills | 263 |
Making the SelfMade Man Christine DUNN Henderson | 269 |
Marx Morality and Dignity Somogy Varga | 291 |
10 Universalizing Dignity in the Nineteenth Century Mika LaVaqueManty | 301 |
Reflection Why Bioethics Isnt Ready for Human Dignity Marcus Düwell | 323 |
11 Sympathy and Dignity in Early Africana Philosophy Bernard Boxill | 333 |
Reflection Death and Dignity in American Law Emma Kaufman | 361 |
Bibliography | 369 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles Adam angels animals Aquinas argues argument Augustine Bioethics body Bois’s Boisian sympathy Cambridge University Press capacity Categorical Imperative century Christian Cicero claim classical concept of dignity contemporary context Crummell cultural Darwall Diderot dignity's discussion Douglass duties emotion Encyclopédie equal Ethics Eumaeus example Frederick Douglass freedom God's Greek hadiths Homeric honor human dignity human nature human rights idea Immanuel Kant individual inherent Islamic Jeremy Waldron justice Kant Kant's Kantian kind Latin Manetti Marx's means moral law Mu'tazili nity normative notion obligations Odysseus one's Oxford University Press passage passions person Philoctetes philosophical Pico Pico's political Priam Pufendorf question Qur'an rank rational reason Renaissance respect Rosen Rousseau Samuel Pufendorf second-personal sense slavery slaves social society sorrow songs soul Spectator status Stephen Darwall Stoic Summa theologiae things thought tion tradition translation treatment unearned University of Memphis words worth Würde York