Understanding human dignity is integral to protecting human rights. An examination
of Canada‘s Supreme Court decisions and Canadian public policy debates reveals that human
dignity is being defined synonymously with individual autonomy and equality. This narrow
understanding has serious implications for people who are not able to assert their autonomy.
To understand the philosophical ideas behind these decisions, this thesis examines classical,
modern, and postmodern accounts of human dignity and concludes that they fall short in
providing an objective grounding for dignity that is truly human. It then looks to the Judeo-
Christian account of human dignity to provide a transcendent foundation for human dignity.
With this account, persons are rational and physical, relational, inviolable, and teleological –
a hopeful contrast to the prevailing contemporary accounts. This thesis then defends the place
of this religious perspective in our secular country. / vi, 182 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/671 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Penninga, Mark, University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science |
| Contributors | von Heyking, John |
| Publisher | Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2008, Arts and Science, Department of Political Science |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Thesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science) |
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