TY - BOOK ID - 86198024 TI - Human dignity and political criticism PY - 2021 SN - 1108937594 9781108937597 1108935060 9781108935067 9781108832021 9781108927628 1108832024 1108934307 PB - Cambridge Cambridge University Press DB - UniCat KW - Political science KW - Dignity KW - Political culture. KW - Philosophy. KW - Social aspects. KW - Human dignity KW - Values KW - Political philosophy KW - Culture KW - Political philosophy. Social philosophy KW - Dignity. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:86198024 AB - Many, including Marx, Rawls, and the contemporary 'Black Lives Matter' movement, embrace the ambition to secure terms of co-existence in which the worth of people's lives becomes a lived reality rather than an empty boast. This book asks whether, as some believe, the philosophical idea of human dignity can help achieve that ambition. Offering a new fourfold typology of dignity concepts, Colin Bird argues that human dignity can perform this role only if certain traditional ways of conceiving it are abandoned. Accordingly, Bird rejects the idea that human dignity refers to the inherent worth or status of individuals, and instead reinterprets it as a social relation, constituted by affects of respect and the modes of mutual attention which they generate. What emerges is a new vision of human dignity as a vital political value, and an arresting vindication of its role as an agent of critical reflection on politics. ER -