Abstract

In the first two parts of this article I explore the way in which Kant, in Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, defines the concept of the dignity of human beings and how he justifies why we should respect this dignity, i. e. why we should never use people purely as a means. The problem with this justification leads me, in the third part, to pursue the question independently from Kant, why one cannot will to be used purely as a means. To will this would not only contradict our understanding of ‹willing›, it would also contradict the conception of a good life. Such considerations lead me to the point of seeing the dignity of human beings in the ability to make objectively justified free decisions