Human Dignity

Introduction: Dignity as a way of living

1. Dignity as autonomy
Being a subject
Being an end in itself
Slaughterhouses
What if it is voluntary?
Humiliation as demonstrated powerlessness
Escaping to an inner fortress
Having rights
Being patronized
Caring paternalism
Respect for alterity and conviction
Dependence: asking and begging
Begging for feelings
Inner autonomy: thought
Inner autonomy: wanting and deciding
Inner autonomy: emotions
Inner autonomy: self-image and censorship
Humiliation through serfdom
Autonomy through self-knowledge
Needing therapy
Dignity through work
Money

2. Dignity as encounter
When subjects encounter each other
Commitment and distancing
Recognition
Equal rights
Putting someone on display
Sex objects
Human commodity
Neglect
Talk to me!
Laughing at someone
Denying explanation
Manipulation
Deception
Seduction
Overpowering
Working with a therapist
No pity, thank you!
Encounters between autonomous individuals
Leaving an open future to the other
Dignified partings

3. Dignity as respect for intimacy
The dual need for intimacy
Feeling the other’s gaze
What is a defect?
The logic of shame
Shame as humiliation
Dignity as conquered shame
The intimate space
The innermost zone
Dignified disclosures
Undignified disclosures
Shared intimacy
Betrayed intimacy as lost dignity
A challenge: Intimacy as a lack of courage

4. Dignity as truthfulness
Lying to others
Lying to oneself
Honesty and its limits
Calling things by their proper name
Saving one’s face
Bullshit

5. Dignity as self-respect
Dignity through limits
Fluid self-images
Destroying self-respect
Sacrificing self-respect
Breaking self-respect
Responsibility for oneself

6. Dignity as moral integrity
Moral autonomy
Moral dignity
Dignity in guilt and forgiveness
Punishment: Development instead of destruction
Absolute moral boundaries?

7. Dignity as a sense for what matters
Meaning of life
One’s own voice
Equanimity as a sense of proportion
The view from the end

8. Dignity as the acceptance of finitude
When others lose themselves
Escape
Losing oneself: Resistance
Losing oneself: Accepting the journey into darkness
Dying
Letting someone die
Ending one’s life
Responsibility towards the dead
References & Further Reading