Is Dignity the Foundation of Human Rights?
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Description
In this chapter I would like to examine, in part with the eye of a pedant, the proposition that human dignity is the foundation of human rights. That proposition, or something like it, is found in the preambles of the major human rights conventions, and it is quite common too in the rhetoric of scholars addressing the subject of rights. It bears examining for all sorts of reasons: first, on account of the recent revival in the philosophical study of dignity; second, because people continue to disagree about human rights and it is worth looking into any thesis that promises to help us with these disagreements; third, because claims about dignity, if put forward as foundational, may provide a basis for challenging other values or principles that have also claimed to occupy this foundational ground (like the principle of utility, for example); and fourth (and this is a reason that takes us in a different direction) because the very idea of foundations for our political ideals has been called in question, and what we find out about dignity may confirm (or refute) the proposition that searching for foundations is more trouble than it is worth. I hasten to add that I am undertaking this inquiry, not to discredit the concept of dignity, but to clarify its role in human rights theory. Some of the things I will say at various stages may seem critical, even dismissive. But it is not the aim of this chapter to denigrate the idea of dignity in relation to rights. For even if it turns out that a strict understanding of the foundationalist claim cannot be defended, still there may be other ways in which dignity will turn out to be important in our understanding of human rights. Subjecting the foundationalist claim to critical scrutiny may have the side-benefit of revealing some of these.
Source Publication
Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights
Source Editors/Authors
Rowan Cruft, S. Matthew Liao, Massimo Renzo
Publication Date
2015
Recommended Citation
Waldron, Jeremy, "Is Dignity the Foundation of Human Rights?" (2015). Faculty Chapters. 1559.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1559
