Human Dignity and Human Rights

Michael Blake, Professor, University of Washington, USA, Journal of Global Ethics Pablo Gilabert's Human Dignity and Human Rights is an extraordinarily welcome book for at least two related reasons. The first is that the book is, taken simply as a piece of philosophical argumentation, an excellent one ... [S]econd ... it is a forceful defense of both human dignity and human rights, at a time when activists of both the left and the right have grown skeptical of such moral notions.

Christian Barry, Professor, Australian National University, Journal of Global Ethics deep, ambitious, and wide-ranging

Cristina Lafont, Professor, Northwestern University, USA, Journal of Global Ethics Pablo Gilabert's book Human Dignity and Human Rights offers a bold and fascinating account of the claim that human rights are grounded in human dignity. His dignitarian approach to human rights is both philosophically sophisticated and politically ambitious.

Adam Etinson, Senior Lecturer, University of St. Andrews, UK, Journal of Global Ethics Gilabert develops a powerful and plausible theory of human dignity ... As Gilabert explains, dignity is made to serve various ends, or to 'do' various things, within [human rights] practice. ... Gilabert's theory manages to imbue human dignity with all of these attributes without collapsing into emptiness, superficiality, or incoherence, which is an impressive feat in its own right. He also presents his account in accessible, lively prose, and with characteristic learnedness, creativity, and philosophical rigor. The result is an invaluable contribution to the understanding of a fraught and confusing topic.

Kristen Hessler, State University of New York, Albany, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Gilabert does an admirable job of defending the idea of human dignity as an important idea in human rights practice, and in making the case that philosophers should pay more attention to it.

Pablo Gilabert is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). He has published numerous articles in scholarly jounrals such as The Journal of Political Philosophy, Political Theory, The Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, Political Studies, Kantian Review and Human Rights Quarterly. He is the author of From Global Poverty to Global Equality: A Philosophical Exploration (Oxford University Press).

1: Introduction Part I: Preliminary Debates: The Relations Between Human Rights and Political Practice, Feasibility, and Power 2: Humanist and Political Perspectives on Human Rights 3: The Feasibility of Human Rights 4: Human Rights and Power Part II: The Dignitarian Approach 5: Understanding Human Dignity in Human Rights 6: Defending the Significance of Human Dignity 7: Dignity and Solidaristic Empowerment 8: The Dignitarian Approach as a Program Part III: Implications of the Dignitarian Approach 9: Labor Rights 10: Political Rights 11: Minimalist vs. Expansive Views of Human Rights: Dignity and the Arc of Humanist Justice