title: Dignity as honour-wound: an experiential and relational view.
abstract: In this paper, we draw on a phenomenological-philosophical foundation to clarify the meaning of dignity as a coherent phenomenon. Consistent with an evocation of its central meanings, we then introduce and delineate seven kinds of dignity that are intertwined and interrelated. We illustrate how these kinds of dignity can provide a useful template to think about its qualities, its 'rupture' and its 'restoration' in human life, particularly in relation to health and social care contexts. We then consider the implications of these relational and experiential views for current debates about the notion of dignity: Is dignity a useless concept? Is dignity objective or subjective? What are the useful ways of characterizing different varieties of dignity? We conclude by pointing to a metaphor that may hold the sense and meaning of our deepest human dignity: The gathering of both value and vulnerability, in which human value does not depend on the eradication of human vulnerability, but occurs within its very context.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull, Hull, UK.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Galvin
authors.forename: Les
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Todres
mesh_terms: D004992:Ethics, Medical; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D008678:Metaphysics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D028723:Personhood; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics
keywords: Heidegger; Husserl; caring, caring science; dignity; ethics of care; existential theory; health; lifeworld; medical humanities; phenomenology; philosophy; wellbeing