Paradox of Dignity: Notes on Existential Luxury and Politics of Quality
Paradox of Dignity: Notes on Existential Luxury and Politics of Quality

Summary/Abstract: Human dignity has been the foundational principle of choice of both international human rights law and domestic constitutional rights provisions since the end of the Second World War. However, in spite of widespread international consent on the importance of this principle, there is a significant degree of confusion regarding its true meaning. Much of this confusion steams from loose usage of the term and its inherent imprecision. This article analyses different meanings of the notion of dignity from semiotic, linguistic, historical, philosophical and social perspective. It takes into account its dual significance in modern times: first, it is the widespread claim that human dignity represents a foundational on which human rights are based on, and second that dignity has obviously power to serve as indirect motivation for numerous and quite different protest movements, which claim to originate from the indisputably deep and often unspecified frustration. The key hypothesis is that the notion’s imprecision is what enables its pervasive use in the public sphere and for different causes. In other words, this article aims at disclosing the paradox of dignity due to the fact it is a highly subjective concept, to a high degree a delicate constituent of (classical) understanding of a person, as well as an element of the (modern) concept of human rights. Furthermore, it is a robust component of the social upheavals across the globe.

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