Dignity, Torture, and Human Rights
This paper focuses on a distinct puzzle for understanding the relationship between dignity and human rights. The puzzle is that dignity appears to enter human rights theory in two distinct roles: on the one hand, dignity is commonly pointed to as the foundation of human rights, i.e. that in virtue o...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Springer Science + Business Media B. V
[2016]
|
In: |
Ethical theory and moral practice
Year: 2016, Volume: 19, Issue: 5, Pages: 1087-1101 |
RelBib Classification: | NBE Anthropology NCD Political ethics VA Philosophy |
Further subjects: | B
Dignity
B Human Rights B Torture |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | This paper focuses on a distinct puzzle for understanding the relationship between dignity and human rights. The puzzle is that dignity appears to enter human rights theory in two distinct roles: on the one hand, dignity is commonly pointed to as the foundation of human rights, i.e. that in virtue of which we have human rights. On the other hand, dignity is commonly pointed to as that which is at risk in a subset of human rights, paradigmatically torture. But how can dignity underpin all human rights, and yet only be at stake in very specific human rights violations? And if dignity is lost in torture, how can the tortured retain their human rights? In this paper I offer a solution to these puzzles, in the form of a new theory of dignity. On this new theory, an individuals dignity can be constituted via either of two pathways: the agents own normative competencies, or the authority of her community. The former is whats typically at stake in practices such as torture; it in virtue of the latter that we have human rights. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1572-8447 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s10677-016-9725-6 |