Trucanini's stare : reconsidering dignity in theory and practice / Susan Marks.

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

1st edition

202794

Respect for persons -- Law and legislation.

International law and human rights.

Dignity.

Human rights -- Australia.

Human rights -- India.

Human rights -- South Africa.

1. Introduction

2. The idea of human dignity

3. Regarding Trucanini's dignity

4. Ghandi and the undignified loincloth

5. Dignity and indignity in the South African toilet wars

6. Conclusion: Dignity and its outsiders.

A central concept in international human rights law and many national constitutions is human dignity. Departing from established approaches to dignity in philosophy and legal theory, Susan Marks takes dignity in everyday life ('dignified care', 'dignity in the workplace', etc.) as a starting point for reconsidering the concept's history and significance. The result is a highly original work which gives particular attention to colonial and post-colonial engagements with dignity, and emphasises the character of human dignity as not just an idea or abstract value, but also a lived experience that cannot be understood without reference to social structures and the inequalities and hierarchies they reproduce. If dignity is an attribute which all human beings possess purely by virtue of being human, Marks shows that it is also an element within the systemic operations of privilege and power. Provides a highly original account of the concept of dignity and its history; Questions established approaches to, and assumptions about, dignity in Western philosophy and jurisprudence; Investigates the history of dignity in a manner that puts the colonised world centre-stage. - Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781009543248

xii, 185 pages ; illustrations ; 24 cm