Ethics Table: The Common Good and Human Dignity

The Ethics Table, organized by Bharat Ranganathan, Beamer-Schneider SAGES Teaching Fellow in Ethics, will be discussing The Common Good and Human Dignity on Friday, Feb. 21, from 12:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in Clark Hall, Room 206.  

The Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family. Likewise, religious thinkers privilege human beings as having an exalted status. Various philosophers attribute this distinct status to human capacities, but what is it about the human that warrants such special status? How might humans identify and defend this special status against philosophical criticism? In this meeting of the Ethics Table, Ranganathan and others will discuss some of the criticisms that must be answered if human dignity is to be defended, from what it means to have dignity to what it means to act dignified.