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Three Crucial Turns on the Road to an Adequate Understanding of Human Dignity

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Humiliation, Degradation, Dehumanization

Part of the book series: Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy ((LOET,volume 24))

Abstract

Human dignity is one of the key concepts of our ethical evaluations, in politics, in biomedicine, as well as in everyday life. In moral philosophy, however, human dignity is a source of intractable trouble. It has a number of characteristic features which apparently do not fit into one coherent ethical concept. Hence, philosophers tend to ignore or circumvent the concept. There is hope for a philosophically attractive conception of human dignity, however, given that one takes three crucial turns. The negative turn: to start the inquiry with violations of human dignity. The inductive turn: to consider the whole range of applications of the concept of human dignity in different areas of ethics. And finally, the historical turn: to take into account the historical bonds between human dignity and traditional conceptions of dignity. Taken together they point in the direction of an understanding of human dignity as universal nobility.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dignity also played an important (but presumably different) part in the Gospels, when Jesus repeatedly exposed himself to situations that were considered as deeply undignified and humiliating.

  2. 2.

    For a profound presentation, see Von der Pfordten (2006).

  3. 3.

    The translation is taken from the Gutenberg Project: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/corii10.txt (2.8.2009), my emphasis.

  4. 4.

    I want to thank the editors of this volume not only for their patience but primarily for their numerous helpful suggestions and remarks that have definitely improved whatever quality there is in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Ralf Stoecker

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  1. Ralf Stoecker
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Correspondence to Ralf Stoecker .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ethik-Zentrum, Universität Zürich, Zollikerstr. 117, Zürich, 8008, Switzerland

    Paulus Kaufmann

  2. SFB Kulturen des Performativen, FU Berlin, Grunewaldstr. 35, Berlin, 12165, Germany

    Hannes Kuch

  3. Philosophische Fak., Inst. Philosophie, Universität Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, Potsdam, 14469, Germany

    Christian Neuhaeuser

  4. Law School, University of Strathclyde, St James' Road, Glasgow, G4 0LT, United Kingdom

    Elaine Webster

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Stoecker, R. (2011). Three Crucial Turns on the Road to an Adequate Understanding of Human Dignity. In: Kaufmann, P., Kuch, H., Neuhaeuser, C., Webster, E. (eds) Humiliation, Degradation, Dehumanization. Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9661-6_2

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