Dignity

Remy Debes is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis. He has published on a wide variety of areas in moral theory, including human dignity, respect, metaethics, moral psychology, empathy, and understanding. He has also published a variety of articles and chapters in the history of ethics, especially on the work of David Hume and Adam Smith. He is the co-editor of Ethical Sentimentalism, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

• Introduction Remy DebesChapter 1. Dignity in Homer and Classical Greece Patrice RankineChapter 2. Dignity in Roman and Stoic Thought Miriam GriffinReflection: Dignity in Confucian and Buddhist Thought David WongChapter 3. Dignity After the Fall Bonnie KentChapter 4. Islamic Conceptions of Dignity: Historical Trajectories and Paradigms Mustafa ShahChapter 5. Dignity, Vile Bodies and Nakedness: Giovanni Pico and Giannozzo Manetti Brian CopenhaverReflection: Portraiture, Social Positioning, and Displays of Dignity in Early Modern London Edward TownChapter 6. Equal Dignity and Rights Stephen DarwallChapter 7. Human Dignity Before Kant: Denis Diderot's Passionate Person Remy DebesChapter 8. Dignity: Kant's Revolutionary Conception Oliver SensenReflection: A Time For Dignity Charles MillsChapter 9. Bourgeois Dignity: Making the Self-Made Man Christine HendersonReflection: Taking refuge from history in morality: Marx, Morality, and Dignity Somogy VargaChapter 10. Universalizing Dignity in the Nineteenth Century Mikka LaVaque-MantyReflection: Why Bioethics isn't Ready for Human Dignity Marcus DüwellChapter 11. Sympathy and Dignity in Early Africana Philosophy Bernie BoxillReflection: Death and Dignity in American Law Emma Kaufman

In addition to tracing the roots of the concept of dignity from classical Greek and Roman writers through medieval Christian doctrine and early modern philosophy, Debes (philosophy, Univ. of Memphis) includes observations from Eastern thought and Islamic scholarship. He opens the volume with a helpful introductory overview and concludes with a discussion of dignity as an important part of current issues in bioethics and current concerns related to race, capital punishment, and modern jurisprudence ... Recommended.