Do you mind expanding a bit on what you mean by dignity and why you think that’s an important measure? Should dignity be valued even at the cost of well-being or should that be used as an indirect measure (like QALY)?
Seconded—it’s hard to react to your post without a more concrete definition of dignity.
Maybe you could propose some metrics, even incomplete ones, for exactly what you’re trying to improve by improving dignity? I looked at the metrics proposed on your website, but I have to admit they seemed vague to me.
Drawing on work by Remy Debes and others, I define dignity as a quality possessed by each person. That quality is characteristic (it is at least part of what defines personhood), inalienable (it cannot be stripped away), and unquantifiable—no one has more or less dignity. This is called a moralized idea of dignity in the literature, and differs from the merit-based definition which says that some people have greater dignity than others.
In recognition of the fact that people have dignity, we have a duty to treat them with respect. We call this Recognition Respect, because it is the basic level of respect due to everyone—we might want to offer additional respect to great athletes or particularly eloquent forum posters. It’s this respect that we measure. On the website I propose some metrics for doing so.
Does that help? It’s tricky to explain at this level of abstraction!
It is very interesting! Glad to see this post.
Do you mind expanding a bit on what you mean by dignity and why you think that’s an important measure? Should dignity be valued even at the cost of well-being or should that be used as an indirect measure (like QALY)?
Seconded—it’s hard to react to your post without a more concrete definition of dignity.
Maybe you could propose some metrics, even incomplete ones, for exactly what you’re trying to improve by improving dignity? I looked at the metrics proposed on your website, but I have to admit they seemed vague to me.
Thanks EdoArad and mwcvitkovic.
Drawing on work by Remy Debes and others, I define dignity as a quality possessed by each person. That quality is characteristic (it is at least part of what defines personhood), inalienable (it cannot be stripped away), and unquantifiable—no one has more or less dignity. This is called a moralized idea of dignity in the literature, and differs from the merit-based definition which says that some people have greater dignity than others.
In recognition of the fact that people have dignity, we have a duty to treat them with respect. We call this Recognition Respect, because it is the basic level of respect due to everyone—we might want to offer additional respect to great athletes or particularly eloquent forum posters. It’s this respect that we measure. On the website I propose some metrics for doing so.
Does that help? It’s tricky to explain at this level of abstraction!