Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-11T15:37:51.338Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in Philosophy of Law

Dignity and Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2025

Ariel Zylberman
Ariel Zylberman
Affiliation:
University at Albany, State University of New York

Summary

Dignity and rights are pervasive ideas. But how exactly should we understand them? Although philosophical theories of dignity and of rights typically proceed independently of each other, this Element treats them together. One advantage of doing so is that we can see a deeper unity underlying the familiar difficulties of standard accounts of dignity and rights (Sections 1 and 2). A second advantage is that understanding how many of the difficulties stem from the reductivist structure of the standard accounts lets us envisage a non-reductivist alternative. Drawing from the metaphysics of kinds and dispositions and from social ontology shows that dignity and rights are fundamental and interdependent normative properties. As pre-conventional properties (Section 3), dignity and rights mark a distinct type of value and function dispositionally, directed to actualization through recognition by others. As social properties (Section 4), they specify the normative status and entitlements constitutive of social kinds.
Get access

Keywords

dignityrightsrelational normsethicsphilosophy of law
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Philosophy of Law
Online ISBN: 9781009238601
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 06 February 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, Michelle. 2010. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 2011. The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Armstrong, David, Martin, Charlie, and Place, Ullin. 1996. Dispositions: A Debate. Edited by Crane, Tim. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Beitz, Charles. 2009. The Idea of Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beitz, Charles 2013. “Human Dignity in the Theory of Human Rights: Nothing but a Phrase?” Philosophy and Public Affairs 41 (3): 259–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentham, Jeremy. 1987. “Anarchical Fallacies: Being an Examination of the Declaration of Rights Issued during the French Revolution.” In Nonsense upon Stilts: Bentham, Burke and Marx on the Rights of Man, edited by Waldron, Jeremy, 46–76. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bird, Colin. 2021. Human Dignity and Political Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christiano, Thomas. 2008. “Two Conceptions of the Dignity of Persons.” Jahrbuch Für Recht Und Ethik / Annual Review of Law and Ethics 16: 101–26.Google Scholar
Cohon, Rachel. 2006. Hume’s Morality: Feeling and Fabrication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cornell, Nicholas. 2019. “Review of Rights and Demands: A Foundational Inquiry, by Margaret Gilbert.” Ethics 130 (January): 107–13.Google Scholar
Cornell, Nicholas 2015. “Wrongs, Rights, and Third Parties.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 43 (2): 109–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruft, Rowan. 2017. “The Circularity of the Interest and Will Theories of Rights.” In New Essays on the Nature of Rights, edited by McBride, Mark, 169–86. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar
Cruft, Rowan 2019. Human Rights, Ownership, and the Individual. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D’Almeida, Luís Duarte. 2016. “Fundamental Legal Concepts: The Hohfeldian Framework.” Philosophy Compass 11 (10): 554–69.Google Scholar
Darby, Derrick. 2009. Rights, Race, and Recognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwall, Stephen. 1977. “Two Kinds of Respect.” Ethics 88 (1): 36–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwall, Stephen 2006. The Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Darwall, Stephen 2013. Morality, Authority, and Law: Essays in Second-Personal Ethics I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwall, Stephen 2013. Honor, History, and Relationship: Essays in Second-Personal Ethics II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwall, Stephen. 2017. “Equal Dignity and Rights.” In Dignity: A History, edited by Debes, Remy, 181–202. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Düwell, Marcus, Braarvig, Jens, Brownsword, Roger et al. 2015. The Cambridge Handbook of Human Dignity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ebels-Duggan, Kyla. 2012. “Kant’s Political Philosophy.” Philosophy Compass 7 (12): 896–909.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabre, Cécile. 2006. Whose Body Is It Anyway? Justice and the Integrity of the Person. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, Joel. 1970. “The Nature and Value of Rights.” The Journal of Value Inquiry 4 (4): 243–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foot, Philippa. 2001. Natural Goodness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Formosa, Paul. 2017. Kantian Ethics, Dignity and Perfection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Formosa, Paul, and Mackenzie, Catriona. 2014. “Nussbaum, Kant, and the Capabilities Approach to Dignity.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (5): 875–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forst, Rainer. 2011. The Right to Justification: Elements of a Constructivist Theory of Justice. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Gilabert, Pablo. 2015. “Human Rights, Human Dignity, and Power.” In Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, edited by Cruft, Rowan, Liao, Matthew, and Renzo, Massimo, 196–214. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilabert, Pablo 2019. Human Dignity and Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 2018. Rights and Demands: A Foundational Inquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Leslie. 2010. “Two Worries about Respect for Persons.” Ethics 120 (2): 212–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, James. 2008. On Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. 1955. “Are There Any Natural Rights?” The Philosophical Review 64 (2): 175–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. 1982. Essays on Bentham: Studies in Jurisprudence and Political Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasan, Rafeeq. 2018. “The Provisionality of Property Rights in Kant’s Doctrine of Right.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 48 (6): 850–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haslanger, Sally. 2003. “Social Construction: The ‘Debunking’ Project.” In Socializing Metaphysics, edited by Schmitt, Frederick, 301–25. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Herman, Barbara. 2021. The Moral Habitat. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1996. Leviathan: Revised Student Edition. Edited by Tuck, Richard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, Louis Philippe. 2010. “Kant on the Right to Freedom: A Defense.” Ethics 120 (4): 791–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hohfeld, W. N. 1919. Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Irwin, Terence. 2008. The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Critical Study. Vol. 2, from Suarez to Rousseau. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Frank, and Pettit, Philip. 1995. “Moral Functionalism and Moral Motivation.” The Philosophical Quarterly 45 (178): 20–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonker, Julian. 2020. “Directed Duties and Moral Repair.” Philosopher’s Imprint 20 (23): 1–32.Google Scholar
Kagan, Shelly. 1998. Normative Ethics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Killmister, Suzy. 2017. “Dignity: Personal, Social, Human.” Philosophical Studies 174 (8): 2063–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killmister, Suzy 2020. Contours of Dignity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine M. 1996. Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Matthew. 1998. “Rights without Trimmings.” In A Debate over Rights, edited by Kramer, Matthew, Simmonds, Neil, and Steiner, Hillel, 7–112. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kramer, Matthew 2017. “In Defence of the Interest Theory of Right-Holding: Rejoinders to Leif Wenar on Rights.” In New Essays on the Nature of Rights, edited by McBride, , 49–84. Hart.Google Scholar
Kurki, Visa A. J. 2021. “The Interest Theory of Rights: Still Standing.” Legal Theory 27 (4): 352–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, Edward J. 1989. Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ludwig, Kirk. 2017. From Plural to Institutional Agency: Collective Action II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manby, Bronwen. 2016. Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study. New York: Open Society Foundations.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marmodoro, Anna, ed. 2010. The Metaphysics of Powers: Their Grounding and Their Manifestations. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marmodoro, Anna, and Erasmus, Mayr. 2019. Metaphysics: An Introduction to Contemporary Debates and Their History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Charles B. 2008. The Mind in Nature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Rex. 1993. A System of Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
May, Simon. 2012. “Moral Status and the Direction of Duties.” Ethics 113: 113–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, Simon 2017. “Desires, Interests, and Claim-Rights.” In New Essays on the Nature of Rights, edited by McBride, Mark, 85–98. Portland, OR: Hart.Google Scholar
McBride, Mark. 2017. “The Tracking Theory of Rights.” In New Essays on the Nature of Rights, edited by McBride, Mark, 149–68. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar
McBride, Mark 2020. “Preserving the Interest Theory of Rights.” Legal Theory 26 (1): 3–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCrudden, Christopher, ed. 2014. Understanding Human Dignity: Understanding Human Dignity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Molnar, George. 2003. Powers: A Study in Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, G. E. 1903. Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mumford, Stephen. 1998. Dispositions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2008. “Human Dignity and Political Entitlements.” In Human Dignity and Bioethics: Essays Commissioned by the President’s Council on Bioethics, 351–380. President’s Council on Bioethics.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha 2007. Frontiers of Justice: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orend, Brian. 2002. Human Rights: Concept and Context. Peterborough: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Owens, David. 2012. Shaping the Normative Landscape. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pallikkathayil, Japa. 2010. “Deriving Morality from Politics: Rethinking the Formula of Humanity.” Ethics 121 (1): 116–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pallikkathayil, Japa 2017. “Persons and Bodies.” In Freedom and Force: Essays on Kant’s Legal Philosophy, edited by Kisilevsky, Sari and Stone, Martin Jay, 35–54. Portland, OR: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Pinker, Stephen. 2008. “The Stupidity of Dignity.” The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/64674/the-stupidity-dignity.Google Scholar
Pippin, Robert B. 2006. “Mine and Thine? The Kantian State.” In The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy, edited by Guyer, Paul, 416–46. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rainbolt, George W. 2006. The Concept of Rights. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1986. The Morality of Freedom. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Reale, Miguel. 2004. “Values and the Realm of Ought to Be.” In Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century, 205–14. Lanham, MD: National Book Network.Google Scholar
Rescher, Nicholas. 2000. Process Philosophy: A Survey of Basic Issues. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ripstein, Arthur. 2009. Force and Freedom: Kant’s Legal and Political Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, Michael. 2012. Dignity: Its History and Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, Michael 2013. “Dignity: The Case against.” In Understanding Human Dignity, edited by McCrudden, Christopher, 143–54. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ryle, Gilbert. 2009. The Concept of Mind. Oxford: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sangiovanni, Andrea. 2017. Humanity without Dignity: Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaab, Janis David. 2023. “Second-Personal Approaches to Moral Obligation.” Philosophy Compass 18 (3): 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneewind, Jerome B. 1997. The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R. 2010. Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Setiya, Kieran. 2022. “What Is Morality?” Philosophical Studies 179 (4): 1113–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafer-Landau, Russ. 2003. Moral Realism: A Defence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 1992. The Lockean Theory of Rights. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skorupski, John. 2010. The Domain of Reasons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sreenivasan, Gopal. 2005. “A Hybrid Theory of Claim-Rights.” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 25 (2): 257–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sreenivasan, Gopal 2017. “Public Goods, Individual Rights and Third-Party Benefits.” In New Essays on the Nature of Rights, edited by McBride, Mark, 127–48. Portland, OR: Hart.Google Scholar
Steiner, Hillel. 1994. An Essay on Rights. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Steiner, Hillel 2002. “Working Rights.” In A Debate over Rights: Philosophical Inquiries, edited by Kramer, Simmonds, and Steiner, , 233–302. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stone, Martin Jay, and Hasan, Rafeeq. 2022. “What Is Provisional Right?” The Philosophical Review 131 (1): 51–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strassera, Julio. 2024. “‘Nunca Más: Alegato Del Fiscal Julio Strassera’.” www.Elhistoriador.Com.Ar/Nunca-Mas-Alegato-Del-Fiscal-Julio-Cesar-Strassera/.Google Scholar
Strawson, Peter F. 1992. Analysis and Metaphysics: An Introduction to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tasioulas, John. 2013. “Human Dignity and the Foundations of Human Rights.” In Understanding Dignity, edited by McCrudden, Christopher, 291–312. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Michael. 2004. “What Is It to Wrong Someone? A Puzzle about Justice.” In Reason and Value: Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz, edited by Jay Wallace, R., Pettit, Philip, Scheffler, Samuel, and Smith, Michael, 333–84. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Michael 2008. Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Judith Jarvis. 1992. The Realm of Rights. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Thomson, Judith Jarvis 2008. Normativity. Chicago, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Tuck, Richard. 1979. Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuck, Richard 1999. The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vandieken, Jonas. 2019. “Bipolar Obligations, Recognition Respect, and Second-Personal Morality.” Journal of Ethics 23 (3): 291–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vlastos, Gregory. 1984. “Justice and Equality.” In Theories of Rights, edited by Waldron, Jeremy, 41–76. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 1993. Liberal Rights: Collected Papers, 1981–1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy 2012. Dignity, Rank, and Rights. Edited by Dan-Cohen, Meir. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, R. Jay. 2013. “The Deontic Structure of Morality.” In Thinking about Reasons: Themes from the Philosophy of Jonathan Dancy, edited by Bakhurst, David, Hooker, Brad, and Little, Margaret Olivia, 137–67. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wallace, R. Jay 2019. The Moral Nexus. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wedgwood, Ralph. 2007. The Nature of Normativity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenar, Leif. 2013. “The Nature of Claim-Rights.” Ethics 123 (2): 321–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Allen W. 1999. Kant’s Ethical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zylberman, Ariel. 2016. Human Dignity. Philosophy Compass. 11 (4), 201–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zylberman, Ariel 2018. “The Relational Structure of Human Dignity.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 96 (4): 738–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zylberman, Ariel 2022. “Review of Colin Bird, Human Dignity and Political Criticism.” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. https://ndpr.nd.edu/.Google Scholar
Zylberman, Ariel 2023b. “The Relational Wrong of Poverty.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 26 (2): 303–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zylberman, Ariel 2025. “Rights and the Good.” The Philosophical Quarterly 75 (1): 288–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Dignity and Rights
  • Ariel Zylberman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Online ISBN: 9781009238601
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Dignity and Rights
  • Ariel Zylberman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Online ISBN: 9781009238601
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Dignity and Rights
  • Ariel Zylberman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Online ISBN: 9781009238601
Available formats
×