Abstract

It seems that talk of dignity is everywhere. In my first formal study of dignity in 2009, I noted a marked uptick in interest in the subject during the latter half of the twentieth century. Since then, the enlargement of appeals to dignity is even more striking. The idea is now constantly referenced in everyday Western moral and political debate and news coverage. It is featured in all kinds of institutional policies, codes of conduct, and handbooks, especially in the areas of health care. And the number of scholarly articles and books published on the subject over the past decade is impressive, to say the least.Whether all this increased talk has been productive is far less obvious. I argued in 2009 that scholarly...