ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relevant aspects of the debate, and extracts the desiderata that the author takes a theory of human rights to have an obligation to meet. It then argues in favour of one particular instance of social dignity – namely, human dignity – as grounding human rights. Typical normative standards that confer dignity include standards of dress, such as a norm against public nudity; standards of bodily function, such as a norm of private toileting; and standards of interpersonal interaction, such as a norm of being addressed by one's title. The standards relevant to personal dignity can cover such morally trifling issues as how people dress, or how they are addressed by others, meaning that dignity can be reduced – or even lost – when an agent wears the wrong thing, or is addressed by the wrong title.
