Abstract

The claim that human dignity is universal is challenged by the particular experience of the horrible things people do to others. If dignity is just a ‘vacuous concept’ then the notion of universal human rights and the claim of cosmopolitism that all human beings for a single moral community are also called into question. A close reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and an analysis the historical development of the text reveals a complex conception of human dignity expressed by the Component Dimensions of Human Dignity model. The model conceives of human dignity in terms of four Component Dimensions – existential, behavioral, cognitive-affective and social- each consisting of a Complementary Duality comprising two facets held in tension along an axis of the Already and the Not Yet. Consequently, human dignity can be understood both as Already a universal truth, and as Not Yet realized in every particular life.