Name any valued human trait—intelligence, wit, charm, grace, strength—and you will find an inexhaustible variety and complexity in its expression among individuals. Yet we insist that such diversity does not provide grounds for differential treatment at the most basic level. Whatever merit, blame, praise, love, or hate we receive as beings with a particular past and a particular constitution, we are always and everywhere due equal respect merely as persons.

But why? Most who attempt to answer this question appeal to the idea that all human beings possess an intrinsic dignity and worth – grounded in our capacities, for example, to reason, reflect, or love – that raises us up in the order of nature. Andrea Sangiovanni rejects this predominant view and offers a radical alternative in his new book Humanity without Dignity: Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights.

But why? Most who attempt to answer this question appeal to the idea that all human beings possess an intrinsic dignity and worth – grounded in our capacities, for example, to reason, reflect, or love – that raises us up in the order of nature. Andrea Sangiovanni rejects this predominant view and offers a radical alternative in his new book Humanity without Dignity: Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights.

Image: Harvard University Press