Report 15th Political Philosophy Workshop: "Kant and Dignity"
Dr. Hugo El Kholi
On June 22th, 2018, the Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai) hosted Michael Eric Rosen, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University, for a lecture entitled “Kant and Dignity”. Professor Rosen was introduced by Jun-Hyeok Kwak, Professor in our department, who served as a moderator throughout the workshop.
In this lecture, Prof. Rosen questioned the moral obligation to treat the dead with dignity. He started by showing that the pervasiveness of this obligation constitutes a deep puzzle for moral philosophy because it cannot be satisfactorily explained in terms of its contribution to human well-being. In this view, the duty to treat dead bodies with dignity is derived from a more fundamental duty, namely the basic duty to respect the dignity of humanity.
After the lecture, Professor Kwak questioned Professor Rosen’s conceptions of dignity with respect to the legal status of dignity which originated in the tradition of the Roman republic. And he also wished to clarify the place of fetus in Professor Rosen’s theory of human dignity. In his role of respondent, Dr. El Kholi, a Research Fellow in our department, questioned Professor Rosen on (1) his reading of Joseph Raz’s “humanistic principle”; (2) his interpretation of what, for Kant, constitutes the dignity of humanity; and (3) on the reason why, when moving from his interpretation of Kant to the formulation of his own view, Professor Rosen choose to drop the transcendental dimension of Kant’s ethical theory. These questions gave Professor Rosen the opportunity to further specificity both his interpretation of Kant and his own view. And interesting discussions followed on relevant issues including the relation of dignity and individual autonomy.
The Department of Philosophy is very grateful to Professor Rosen for his visit and hopes that he will visit again in the near future.
