Course level: Graduate
Spring 2024
Syracuse University
The idea that all human beings are equal in dignity and deserve respect is embedded in numerous constitutions, international conventions, and declarations, including the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Declaration of Independence. In the first part of this seminar, we will examine the history and meaning of human dignity. First we will consider a traditional social or conventional sense of dignity as high social status or rank; then we will turn to the Ciceronian conception of dignity as the high rank and elevated position of the human being vis-à-vis the rest of nature; lastly, we will turn to the conception of human dignity as the transcendent intrinsic value of human beings. In each case, we will discuss whether the relevant conception of human dignity can generate a duty to respect all persons. In the second part of the seminar, we will focus on a set of questions related to the concepts of dignity and respect. For example: How should we understand the difference between respect and esteem? In virtue of what do animals and humans have moral standing? Do animals and humans have equal moral status? How should we conceive the relationship between dignity and human rights? We will discuss works by authors such as: Cicero, Nussbaum, Pico della Mirandola, Kant, Fichte, Jeremy Waldron, Stephen Darwall, Oliver Sensen, and Christine Korsgaard.