The Nature of Dignity

The Nature of Dignity is a highly interdisciplinary work of philosophy that focuses primarily on the form of dignity (or nobility of demeanor) that individuals exhibit to varying degrees, rather than the form of dignity that we tend to presume we already possess simply by virtue of being human. Ron Bontekoe contends that the Enlightenment assumptions that have traditionally been appealed to in elucidating our conceptions of human dignity are no longer tenable because of the theory of evolution and dominant strains in modern political-economic theory. Nonetheless, he argues that dignity is a value to which we should remain committed, and offers a new set of conceptual underpinnings to replace the Enlightenment assumptions of Kant, Locke, and others on this subject. The Nature of Dignity will be of interest to upper-level students and scholars of philosophy. Book jacket.

Ron Bontekoe is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Hawai'i.