DIGNITY

'Dignity' in humans involves the earning or the expectation of personal respect or esteem. To esteem persons or things is to give them a high value. Dignity can both be seen as intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic dignity is independent on actions of a person, but is always constant. Extrinsic dignity, on the other hand, is dependent on actions.

Contents

Intrinsic

Theistic

Naturalistic and pantheistic

Extrinsic

Dignity and goodness

Dignity and egoism

Dignity and self-esteem

Dignity and freedom

Variations

See also

References

External links

Intrinsic

That all people have intrinsic dignity can be motivated theistically and naturalistically/pantheistically. Intrinsic dignity is recognized either directly or by implication by various authorities including, among others, the authors of the United States Declaration of Independence. As an example, the preamble of the Declaration of Independence states "We hold these truths to be self evident...that all men...are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." which implies that man has sufficient worth as to be provided or furnished with something valuable such as human rights.

Theistic

When viewed as an intrinsically defined quality, any newborn already has his or her dignity, as he or she has a soul. The soul's presence is encompassing; just as one cannot have half a soul, one cannot have only half of one's dignity. The intrinsically-defined concept of ''dignity'' is therefore an infinite concept, suggesting that the highest worth that manifests in each person is their dignity, and that even an infant has dignity equal to that of an adult. Thus, ''dignity'' is not a quality of being highly valued, but is intrinsically the highest human value itself.

Naturalistic and pantheistic

The word dignity comes from the Latin ''dignitas'', from ''dignus'', meaning "worthy" (i.e. of a certain worth or value). From a strict naturalistic standpoint, value is determined by the one doing the valuation.
Nevertheless, if we include naturalism into the bounds of pantheism, ulitmately everything is important and everything has inherent worth. Human life has the same inherent dignity as a porpoise or a tree, given that for naturalists, pantheists and neopagans, nature is very, very important, and the value of a tree isn't determined by its mere instrumental utility for humans. What isn't valued is destroyed, and ultimately all life is valuable, and in this view, life must be fostered. According to philosopher and humanistic psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, the love of life, biophilia, is the hallmark of emotional wellbeing.

Extrinsic

According to ''Webster's Dictionary'', the word ''dignity'' means the quality of being worthy of esteem or honor; worthiness; i.e., the quality of being highly valued.
When viewed as an extrinsically defined quality, an infant has less dignity than an adult because people are born without all their final qualities. The socio- psychological repercussions of an extrinsically defined conception of dignity arise from the beginning of life, wherein people's dignity is first subjected to a variety of judgments from others. People thus learn to perceive their dignity as a number of finite, measurable qualities -- in the same extrinsic way that others evaluate them. Moreover, people learn to judge others extrinsically as well, and they forget about the ideal (intrinsic) meaning of the word ''dignity''.

Dignity and goodness

Extrinsic dignity is relative, in the sense that a person is attributed with various worthiness by different perceivers. How much dignity a person has in the eyes of another perceiver, in turn, depends on how much goodness vs. evil he/she does to the perceiver.
Thus, a person doing a lot of good, but just as much evil still has no dignity. A pure materialistic example would be a person being a workhorse, but consuming everything him-/herself. Even the laziest idler has more dignity, if just a penny goes to charity.

Dignity and egoism

In this sense, to do goodness to another person means to increase one's own dignity, because that other person puts more value in someone who gives more than takes.
However, taking the relative example of the person him-/herself as the perceiver, i.e. how much goodness vs. evil done to him-herself, is rather egoism (unless it is psychological egoism).

Dignity and self-esteem

It is painful for a person when someone disrespects the person. Respect, however, doesn't elevate another person's value, his or her dignity, but only rises the self-esteem of the other; disrespect humiliates. When parents ask their teenagers for respect, they actually ask their children to do goodness to their parents. When relationships are already too bad, disrespect is mutual. Teenagers especially need their dignities to be highly appreciated. They crave for their parents’ respect, not in return for their respect, but for the sake of their self-esteem. If parents do not understand this fact and continue to complain, to accuse, to blame, they continue to encroach upon their children’s self-esteem. They continue doing the opposite to goodness; i.e., evil. Thus, from both sides, people dig the "tunnels of evil" (Simon Soloveychik).
Instead, asking for forgiveness is the first step to begin doing goodness to other person, to increase the other person’s self-esteem. Thankfulness is another act of goodness. Admiration, care, excitement about another person, these actions are parts of love, which is the greatest goodness and which always elevates self-esteem.
The difficulty in human relationships comes from the fact that there are two related movements: from the person to the world, and from the world to the person. If from childhood a person's self-esteem is guarded, the person forms the right image of him/herself, and of the world. There is a cliché: "I am OK, and you are OK"; however, the humiliation of human self-esteem begins in childhood and people get used to it, they acquire low self-esteem, lose their sense of value for their dignity, and learn to not value the dignity of others as well. Thus, from generation to generation as a contagious disease, human self-esteem continues to be encroached upon and requires some form of defense in order to retain value intrinsically, as goodness needs defense from evil.

Dignity and freedom

Society is free when it has free people. People are free when they have learned the truth about themselves, when they carry the truth with dignity, when they are internally free. Internal freedom is freedom from fear to be judged, to be charged a low price, freedom from doubts about dignity.
The only fear an intrinsically free man does have is fear of losing his honor. A free man is afraid to go against his conscience. When one encroaches upon another, this person receives an internal message of doing something wrong, doing evil. This message about what is good and what is evil is called conscience. However, when a person is encroached upon by another, with the same message about the perceived violation of justice that is raised in the victim's soul, feelings of indignation are raised. Indignation is caused when someone's dignity is encroached upon by another. The process of validating a person's dignity makes them feel freer, because it is the process of personality liberation.
Society knows freedom when its people know dignity.

Variations

Note, of course, that not all expressions of respect confer dignity. One can respect and/or esteem the skills of (say) criminals while despising those same criminals, disrespecting their persons and affording them no dignity at all...

See also

★ Human rights

★ Indignation

★ Righteous indignation

★ Pride

★ Self-esteem

★ Self-concept

★ Self-respect

References

#Dignity, article from educational site Parenting For Everyone
#Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Respect

External links

★ Emotional Competency Entry describing Dignity.