Humanity without Dignity: Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights

Andrea Sangiovanni

Published by Harvard University Press 2017

Humanity without Dignity

Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights

Andrea Sangiovanni

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674977440

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why are all persons due equal respect? Andrea Sangiovanni rejects the view that human dignity is grounded in our capacities for reason, love, etc. Rather than focus on the basis for equality, we should focus on inequality: Why and when is it wrong to treat others as inferior? Moral equality, he writes, is best explained by a rejection of cruelty.

Reviews

In Humanity without Dignity, one of the most original and powerful political philosophers of our time presents his moral groundwork. Skeptical of rationalistic frameworks, Andrea Sangiovanni asks us to start from a consideration of human vulnerability and of the wrongness of treating others as inferior. The result is a comprehensive and humane vision of morality and politics for earthly, social beings—a vision that asks us to think anew about who and what we are. What more can we expect of a great piece of philosophy?
-- Rainer Forst, Goethe University Frankfurt

This is an important book on a much-discussed subject: what does talk about human equality amount to? Many answers are formulated in terms of dignity, which is often grounded in the idea that there is some value-bestowing property we all share in equal measure. Sangiovanni offers an alternative account and explores in great detail and with much sophistication what it implies for the debate about human rights. Anybody interested in human rights should pay attention.
-- Mathias Risse, Harvard University

In this erudite and superbly written book Andrea Sangiovanni draws on sources from philosophy, literature, international law, and social science to present a new theory of equality. Rather than supposing that our commitment to the moral equality of all is based on an appeal to an account of human dignity, Sangiovanni puts forward a radical alternative that starts from an explanation of why it is wrong to treat another as an inferior. It is wrong, he argues, when the treatment involves stigmatization, dehumanization, infantilization, instrumentalization, or objectification. And these, in turn, are objectionable when and because they involve social cruelty, understood as an assault on another’s capacity to develop and maintain the integrity of their sense of self. Illustrating the approach with the example of discrimination, and extending it to a detailed account of human rights, Sangiovanni has made a highly original and impressively thoughtful contribution to our understanding of the basis of human equality.
-- Jonathan Wolff, University of Oxford

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I. FOUNDATIONS
1. Against Dignity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Moral Equality, Respect, and Cruelty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
3. When and Why Is Discrimination Wrong? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
PART II. HUMAN RIGHTS
4. The Concept of Human Rights: The Broad View Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
5. International Legal Human Rights and Equal Moral Status Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
6. Fundamental Rights, Indivisibility, and Hierarchy among Human Rights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 320

eBook

Published: June 26, 2017
ISBN: 9780674977440