Life Worth Living: Dignity and Self-Worth

The course examines two basic values in human life: self-worth and dignity. We want to ask what makes out the worthiness of our being, life and self. Who and what gives it dignity? We will pursue this question in two separate but related lines of thought. The first views dignity and self-worth as birth-rights of every human being (we will examine if and to what extent these rights/values apply to other living beings). In other words, human dignity is an indivisible, universal right, and so we ‘have’ it because we were born humans. The other line of thinking approaches self-worth and dignity as values to be achieved in life. Certain ways of living in the world lead to dignity and self-worth, others do not. How do we acquire (and lose) our sense of worth? Why is it better for us to have a dignified life than an undignified? These and other questions will be interrogated in-depth through discussion of philosophical texts (Al-Shanfara, Ibn Arabi, Ibn Khaldun, Al-Jahiz, Ibn Tufayl, Pico della Mirandola, Vico, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Chamfort, Rivarol, Goethe, Herder, Kant and Nietzsche). Additionally, students will be encouraged to investigate these different conceptions by applying them to their lived experiences and the lives of others.