Dignity in the 21st Century

Professor Doris Schroeder, whose background is in philosophy, politics and economics, is Director of the Centre for Professional Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire UK and Adjunct Professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University Canberra, Australia. Professor Schroeder has extensively published on and led large international research projects on benefit sharing, responsible research and innovation and global research ethics. Her conceptual work in ethics focuses mostly on the human right to access to health care, dignity and vulnerability. Dr Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr was Iran’s first president from 1980 to 1981. In addition to theorizing the 1979 Iranian Revolution, he has published a wide range of books and articles in the fields of philosophy, theology, sociology and economy. His work centres around critiquing traditional and fundamentalist forms of Islam and, through in-depth study of the Koran, constructing revolutionary new interpretations of Islam as discourses of liberty which prioritize freedom, dignity, and human rights.

• The quest for dignity.- Dignity in the west.- Dignity’s omnipresence.- A very short history of dignity.- Immanuel kant’s concept of dignity.- Dignity in legal instruments.- Dignity in bioethics.- Disambiguating the main concepts of dignity.- What kind of concept is dignity? .- Is dignity a virtue?.- Is dignity an individual characteristic not covered by virtues? .- Is dignity intrinsic to human beings?.- Is dignity god-given? The example of christianity.- Testing and critiquing the taxonomy of dignity.- Dignity and vagueness.- Could dignity be replaced with respect for persons? .- A common core of dignity building blocks? .- Concluding on the dignity riddles.- Dignity in the middle east.-islam – A brief Overview of a world religion.- The prophet.- The koran and the hadîths.- Islam in everyday life.- Introduction to dignity in the koran.- Dignity and power.- Dignity and freedom.-  How dignity becomes realisable.- Middle east and west – can common ground be found?.- Dignity – a fictional dialogue.