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The Problem of Human Dignity

thesis
posted on 2012-04-15, 00:00 authored by Bryan Christopher Pilkington

Appeals to human dignity are often met with disdain and outright rejection. This leaves those who find the concept to be a valuable resource on the defensive. Though difficult to solve, the problem of human dignity is relatively easy to articulate: What is dignity and why should we take it seriously? The concept plays a prominent role in political agreement, moral theorizing, and social policy. Despite this prominence, there is stark disagreement over whether dignity can successfully play this role. Critics argue that dignity is eliminable from our moral and political discourse without serious consequences. This situation calls for careful philosophical work to be done to help articulate the nature and importance of human dignity.

An adequate response to the problem of dignity must be twofold. First, it must show that dignity has intuitive appeal. Examining the kinds of situations in which dignity is commonly appealed to and responding to its critics can show this. A look at the debate over dignity illustrates that many critics are guilty of a lack of care in analyzing the concept and in assessing different accounts of dignity, and of, what is more egregious, failing to notice a central tension within the concept between its meritorious and egalitarian elements. Second, a coherent and satisfying account of dignity must be put forth. By drawing on lessons from those situations in which dignity is appealed to and from the mistakes of critics of dignity, and by focusing on the tension that is at the heart of dignity, a coherent account of dignity can be put forth. Before sketching what this account will look like, I examine Gilbert Meilaender's and Jeremy Waldron's accounts of dignity.

The twofold response to the problem of dignity is sufficient to reject the claim that dignity is eliminable from our moral and political discourse without serious consequences. This is because it offers the resources to deny the strongest argument for this claim, which is that it is impossible to arrive at a coherent account of dignity that does justice to the elements of dignity that appear to be in tension.

History

Date Modified

2017-06-02

Defense Date

2012-02-14

Research Director(s)

David Solomon

Committee Members

Paul Weithman Gilbert Meilaender James Sterba O. Carter Snead

Degree

  • Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Level

  • Doctoral Dissertation

Language

  • English

Alternate Identifier

etd-04152012-172359

Publisher

University of Notre Dame

Program Name

  • Philosophy

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