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ABSTRACT
The concept of human dignity is important for understanding discussions of rights, religion, and society in contemporary China. While the neoliberal idea of “public reason” abstracts human rights from cultural particularities and religious convictions to provide an idea of universal rights, human dignity includes these social and cultural elements to provide an account of human rights in social context. Classical conceptions of political virtue, which can be found in both Chinese (Confucian) and Western (Aristotelian) traditions, provide a background for understanding human dignity and thus offer some guidance for this contemporary task.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Robin W Lovin is Cary Maguire University Professor of Ethics emeritus at Southern Methodist University and a Visiting Scholar in Theology at Loyola University Chicago.
Notes
1 Waldron, Dignity, Rank, and Rights.
2 Sen, “Human Rights and Capabilities,” 152–66.
3 On Confucianism and socialism, see Zhibin Xie’s essay “Human Rights in China: A Social-Constructive Theological Approach.” On political responsibility, see Li Quan’s essay, “Karl Barth in Beijing.”
4 Rawls, Theory of Justice, 325–32.
5 See Lap Yan Kung’s essay, “Parent-Child and Centre-Edge Metaphors: A Theological Engagement with the Social Imaginary of ‘One Country, Two Systems.’”
6 The term is defined in Rawls, Political Liberalism, 11–14.
7 Rawls, Theory of Justice, 396.
8 Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration.
9 Audi, “Liberal Democracy and the Place of Religion in Politics,” 1–67.
10 Rawls, Political Liberalism, 134–40.
11 Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 15–65.
12 William Galston, The Practice of Liberal Pluralism, 40–41. Rawls, Political Liberalism, 212–20.
13 See Shuang Xu’s essay, “Development Process and Legislative Suggestions of the Disabled Welfare Rights Guarantee in China.”
14 See Li Quan’s essay, “Karl Barth in Beijing.”
15 Rawls, Collected Papers, 574.
16 See, for example, Hauerwas, With the Grain of the Universe, 15.
17 Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution, 324–480.
18 See, for example, Kant, Perpetual Peace, 107–44.
19 See the essay by Jieren Hu and Yang Zheng, “Social Media, State Control, and Religious Freedom in China.”
20 Mou, Nineteen Lectures on Chinese Philosophy.
21 Jiang, A Confucian Constitutional Order, 47–53. I have been greatly assisted in understanding these options in contemporary Confucianism by a paper presented to the symposium on Dignity, Morality, and Rights in 2017 by Li Quan, “Our Right to Take Responsibility: An Inquiry into the Confucian Political Ethics of Mou Zongsan.”
22 Nussbaum, “Human Functioning and Social Justice,” 203–8.