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Theories Of Human Dignity

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Question of the research. In the researches of Lithuanian scholars, the human dignity is more frequently analysed from the juridical, theological, educological and philosophical points of view. Venckienė (2005, 2008), Vaišvila (2004, 2005), Jovaiša (2001), Kairienė (2010), Peičius (2000), Meškauskienė (2002, 2005), Virbalienė (2006), Mockus (2006), Virbalienė, Žydžiūnaitė (2010), and foreign researchers such as Chaskalson (2002), Lobato (2001), Dicke (2002), Meyer (2002), Donnely J. (2009) in their researches state the complexity of human dignity as a phenomenon. The notion of dignity in social work studies is similar to its perception in law studies. In the practice of social work, it is more frequent to write about the factors of human dignity …show more content…

A person’s worth is a specific power or ability to accomplish his aims; this skill is usually called worthiness (Hobbes, 1999). Hobbes considers that the dignity itself is not worthiness, but it results from worthiness. Thus, a person’s worthiness is a natural skill to accomplish his duties that are meaningful for the society in an appropriate way. By fulfilling his duties and giving sense to his activities, a person starts to feel his worth and understands himself as a dignified member of the society (Lobato, 2001, Statman, 2002, Donnely, 2009, Virbalienė, Žydžiūnaitė, 2010). Many researchers are now speaking about different crisis of values that have a negative impact on one’s feeling of dignity. Despite of that, today the biggest crisis of values are caused by the impossibility to understand one’s own worth. (Venckienė, 2008). Due to that, dignity as person’s worthiness derives from a person’s ability to live properly in a society. It is yet difficult to define the concept of living properly in a postmodern society as the postmodern world had transformed subject’s identity to an object of consumption. Therefore, if one wants to become an active unit in today’s society, he is obliged to consume (Bauman, 2007). Having this in mind we see that the lowest class had become worthless in a postmodern society: the members of this class are not capable of creating no added value and so they are not included in the circles of investments and marketplaces. The above mentioned reasons influence the situation that the members of higher social classes are more appreciated (Baudrillard, 2010, Bauman, 2007). Thus, this rapid change in social life and a gap between social classes influenced the formation of social exclusion. Furthermore, in our societies we confront with an unequal repartition of power and wealth that is created by the system itself, as well as with

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