Dignity, Democracy, and Mythos
References to dignity (human dignity, personal dignity) are a constant in our cultural life, especially in journalism and politics. Overuse has unfortunately rendered the term rather shopworn, its value…
Dignity and Cultural Degradation
Shaping a performance in the drama of living, each of us wonders: How am I doing? Am I creating a persona suitable to the human drama, crafting…
The Universal Search for Human Dignity
Most people, understandably, have not reflected systematically on the idea of their own inherent dignity: what exactly it consists of, and why it is “inalienable.” Even fewer…
Eclipsing Mystery and the Transcendent
There is a well-known way to prevent transcendent reality from becoming a living truth, and to keep uncertainties about the ground of reality (and existential shakenness) at…
Existential Shakenness and Transcendence
Those committed to inherent human dignity and rights may, or may not, focus attention on the transcendence of the “absolute” that validates them. If they do, they…
The Challenge of Upholding Human Dignity
If inherent human dignity exists—and the judgment that it does is a foundation-stone of liberal democracy—then the contingent particularity of every person (embodied, fragile, here-now-gone-tomorrow) is also…
What is a Person? Understanding Dignity in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The phrase inherent human dignity refers to the value of being a person. So we must ask: What is a person? Sometimes, nowadays, we hear impassioned assertions…
The Historical Roots of Human Dignity in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The four members of the UN’s Commission on Human Rights responsible for crafting the final version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Charles Malik, Eleanor Roosevelt,…
Human Dignity and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The United Nations was founded in October 1945. Eight months later, it established a Commission on Human Rights, which was given the task of producing an international…
The Origins of Inherent Human Dignity
The idea of inherent human dignity has come to play a prominent role in contemporary culture. A commonplace, now, in political discourse and journalism, it has long…
On Human Nature
All ideas of a purely “immanent” human nature are based on a philosophical oversight: the failure to recognize that affirmation of an “immanent reality” has metaphysical meaning…
On Misunderstanding Human Nature
When we ask what human nature is, the words themselves can be a cause of misdirection, as the word nature suggests that a complete answer to the…
On Science
Sometimes, in a set of reflections, one needs to slow down and describe certain details with delicacy and fine attention; sometimes, though, summary strokes are needed. Here…
On the World of Space and Time
Discovery of the transcendence of ultimate reality—whether undesrtood as Tao, Brahman, Yahweh, Logos, or in another fashion—alters how the “world,” initially experienced as the cosmos, comes to…
