The Cambridge Handbook of Human Dignity
Interdisciplinary Perspectives

A multidisciplinary exploration of the concept of human dignity in relation to a range of questions, topics, contexts and cultures.

Marcus Düwell (Edited by), Jens Braarvig (Edited by), Roger Brownsword (Edited by), Dietmar Mieth (Edited by)

9780521195782, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 April 2014

634 pages
25.2 x 18.3 x 3.8 cm, 1.24 kg

'This is a publication which meets, to a considerable extent, its ambitious interdisciplinary aims. This being the case, the edited collection is certainly recommended to the researcher of the concept of human dignity, as an excellent starting point for one's interdisciplinary academic endeavours in the area. The work is thus deemed an indispensable academic tool for one's initial theoretical exploration of the concept of dignity.' Antonios E. Platsas, The International Journal of Human Rights

This introduction to human dignity explores the history of the notion from antiquity to the nineteenth century, and the way in which dignity is conceptualised in non-Western contexts. Building on this, it addresses a range of systematic conceptualisations, considers the theoretical and legal conditions for human dignity as a useful notion and analyses a number of philosophical and conceptual approaches to dignity. Finally, the book introduces current debates, paying particular attention to the legal implementation, human rights, justice and conflicts, medicine and bioethics, and provides an explicit systematic framework for discussing human dignity. Adopting a wide range of perspectives and taking into account numerous cultures and contexts, this handbook is a valuable resource for students, scholars and professionals working in philosophy, law, history and theology.

Introduction: 1. Human dignity from a legal perspective
2. Human dignity – concept, discussions, philosophical perspectives
Part I. Origins of the Concept in European History: 3. Meritocratic and civic dignity in Greco-Roman antiquity
4. Human dignity in the Middle Ages, twelfth to fourteenth century
5. Human dignity in late-medieval spiritual and political conflicts
6. The Council of Valladolid, 1550–1: a European disputation about the human dignity of indigenous peoples of the Americas
7. Human dignity in the Renaissance
8. Martin Luther's conception of human dignity
9. Natural rights vs. human dignity: two conflicting traditions
10. Human dignity in Rousseau and the French Revolution
11. Human dignity and socialism
12. Human dignity in the Jewish tradition
Part II. Beyond the Scope of the European Tradition: 13. The concepts of human dignity in moral philosophies of indigenous peoples of the Americas
14. Human dignity in the Islamic world
15. Hinduism: the universal self in a class society
16. Buddhism: inner dignity and absolute altruism
17. Human dignity in traditional Chinese Confucianism
18. Dignity in traditional Chinese Daoism
Part III. Systematic Conceptualization: 19. Social and cultural presuppositions for the use of the concept of human dignity
20. Is human dignity the ground of human rights?
21. Human dignity – can a historical foundation alone suffice?
22. Kantian perspectives on the rational basis of human dignity
23. Kantian dignity: a critique
24. Human dignity and human rights in Alan Gewirth's moral philosophy
25. Human dignity in the capability approach
26. Human dignity in Catholic thought
27. Jacques Maritain's personalist conception of human dignity
28. Scheler and human dignity
29. Dignity and the Other: dignity and the phenomenological tradition
30. Dignity, fragility, singularity in Paul Ricoeur's ethics
31. Human dignity as universal nobility
32. Dignity in the Ubuntu tradition
33. Posthuman dignity
34. Dignity as the right to have rights: human dignity in Hannah Arendt
35. Individual and collective dignity
Part IV. Legal Implementation: 36. Equal dignity in international human rights
37. Is human dignity a useless concept? Legal perspectives
38. Human dignity in French law
39. Human dignity in German law
40. Human dignity in US law
41. Human dignity in South American law
42. Human dignity in South African law
43. The Islamic world and the alternative declarations of human rights
44. The protection of human dignity under Chinese law
45. Human dignity in Japanese law
46. The place of dignity in the Indian constitution
Part V. Conflicts and Violence: 47. Human dignity and war
48. Treatment of prisoners and torture
49. Human dignity and prostitution
50. Human dignity, immigration and refugees
Part VI. Contexts of Justice: 51. Human dignity and social welfare
52. Dignity and global justice
53. Human dignity and people with disabilities
54. Human dignity as a concept for the economy
55. Human dignity and gender inequalities
56. The rise and fall of freedom of online expression
Part VII. Biology and Bioethics: 57. The threefold challenge of Darwinism to an ethics of human dignity
58. On the border of life and death: human dignity in bioethics
59. Human dignity and commodification in bioethics
60. Dignity only for humans? A controversy
61. Dignity only for humans? On the dignity and inherent value of non-human beings
62. Human dignity and future generations.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Law [L], Human rights [JPVH]