Some remarks on the concept and intellectual history of human dignity

Abstract: The article looks at general problems associated with the explication of the concept of human dignity, then looks specifically at this in relation to bioethics and suggests possible solutions. The author explores the intellectual history of the concept (Cicero) and responds to the radical criticism that the concept of human dignity is useless and redundant in bioethical discourse (it is ambiguous, lacks cognitive content, is of religious provenance and is incompatible with the modern (Darwinist) scientific image of the world). He argues 1) that the ambiguity and relativity of the concept can be solved by precisely identifying the content and performing a classification analysis and shows that the concept does have cognitive content that is irreducible to other concepts; 2) that the need to elaborate the concept of human dignity is pre-Christian in origin (Cicero) and that the idea of a personal God and the Holy Trinity are not prerequisite to the concept; and 3) that the idea of human dignity as otherness could prevent anthropocentric speciesism and the naturalistic abolition of human self-identity.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Some remarks on the concept and intellectual history of human dignity ; volume:26 ; number:4 ; year:2016 ; pages:462-477 ; extent:16 ; Human affairs ; 26, Heft 4 (2016), 462-477 (gesamt 16)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Palenčár, Marián

Further information

• DOI: 10.1515/humaff-2016-0039
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2404271540448.763913133330
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:55 AM CEST