Human Dignity and Human Rights

Abstract

An analysis of violations of human dignity seems to offer an inductive pathway to human dignity, that some find more promising than theory-guided elaborations of a positive account. This paper wants to stress the need to develop a positive account of human dignity. It is impossible to determine which kind of actions are violations of human dignity without a positive account. It is furthermore difficult to understand the relevance of those violations for a comprehensive concept of human dignity without a positive approach. The paper aims at developing an understanding of what one could expect from an account of human dignity in two steps. In the first place some general features of a modern concept of human dignity are described, such as the equality of dignity, the other-regarding prescriptivity, the emphasis on the inherent worth of the individual and the overriding normative claim of human dignity. The aim would be to show those elements that distinguish disputes about human dignity from other debates about honour, social standing, ideals of excellence and the like. In a second step the paper formulates a set of questions that each theory of human dignity must answer: Who has human dignity? What is the relationship between human dignity and human rights? What is the normative content of human dignity? What is the ontological status of human dignity? And what kind of justification for human dignity can be expected? The list is not complete but the paper aims to identify those questions to which each account of human dignity should give an answer. Human dignity is the basic concept of our moral and political order. Therefore a comprehensive understanding of human dignity is only possible through the development of a positive account. Perhaps such a positive account can not be developed and justified but that can only be decided after a discussion of the questions raised above; and if those questions cannot be answered then we have reasons to abandon the concept of human dignity altogether. Whether or not human dignity is a meaningful, or meaningless and empty concept, can only be decided through a discussion about success and failure of a positive account.