Book contents
- Human Dignity and Political Criticism
- Human Dignity and Political Criticism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Part I The Contours of Dignitarian Humanism
- 1 The Tribunal of Human Dignity
- 2 Some Remarks on Method
- 3 Pressure Points
- 4 Four Concepts of Dignity
- Part II Against Traditional Accounts of Human Dignity
- Part III A Revisionist Approach
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Four Concepts of Dignity
from Part I - The Contours of Dignitarian Humanism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2021
- Human Dignity and Political Criticism
- Human Dignity and Political Criticism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Part I The Contours of Dignitarian Humanism
- 1 The Tribunal of Human Dignity
- 2 Some Remarks on Method
- 3 Pressure Points
- 4 Four Concepts of Dignity
- Part II Against Traditional Accounts of Human Dignity
- Part III A Revisionist Approach
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 3 described, in schematic form, the basic contours of the dignitarian humanist ideas latent in much contemporary political philosophy. It tried to highlight where those ideas hold promise as well as the outstanding challenges they face as vehicles of political criticism. This chapter develops a fourfold typology of dignity concepts that will allow us to consider how dignitarians might best meet those challenges. The typology teases out, from our ordinary notions of dignity, several contrasting ways in which dignitarian metaphors can work. Doing this will enable us to bring into sharper focus traditional accounts of human dignity that construe it as an inherent trait of persons to which respect is the appropriate response while creating space for the revisionist alternative that I will later elaborate and partly defend.
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- Human Dignity and Political Criticism , pp. 51 - 66Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021