ABSTRACT
Dignity belongs to humanity alone because only humanity is capable of morality of acting through pure duty. The capability of being a moral being and of acknowledging others as being capable of morality is the ultimate foundation of human dignity: Morality is the condition under which alone a rational being can be an end in himself, for only thereby can he be a legislating member in the kingdom of ends. The assertion of human dignity enabled the reaffirmation of ‘humanity’ as a whole, which had already been an insistence of the stoics. The French Council of State, in the famous ‘tossing the dwarf case, said that respect for human dignity is one of the constituents of public order. Without the power of speech and without citizenship, the establishment of the respect of human dignity is in vain. Hannah Arendt’s criticism of reference to human dignity seems particularly forceful, notably because it is based on experience of the Holocaust.
