Abstract

To have dignity is to be worthy of respect and reverence. To have human dignity is to be worthy of respect and reverence because one is a human being. This is a book about human dignity, and the tradition in ideas which says that human beings are special, unique: that human beings have certain qualities which are not possessed by other creatures, and which serve as the foundation for human dignity. The range of figures which Rotenstreich identifies and discusses as being in this tradition is literally extraordinary: everyone from Kant to Anselm, Vico to Pico, Otto to Rousseau. Each is taken to have something to contribute to the uniqueness tradition.