Dignity, Self-esteem and personal Identity

Human dignity is a contested and maybe essentially contested concept. One prominent interpretation links dignity with self-respect, claiming that a violation of dignity is a form of disrespect that erodes the grounds of self-respect. However, this linkage of dignity and self-respect does not immediately solve the difficulty of understanding dignity. Self-respect might turn out to be a similarly contested concept, but it might also be more open to analytical scrutiny than dignity is. Following this possibility, I discuss three different contemporary theories that link dignity with self-respect in different ways, which were developed by Peter Schaber, Arnd Pollmann and Ralf Stoecker respectively. I will then argue that those theories present illuminating interpretations of respect, but somewhat neglect a thorough discussion of the self that is to be respected. However, such a discussion of the self or - to express it in a rather less metaphysical way - identity is necessary, or so I will argue, for a full understating of the relation of dignity and self-respect.