Mutual respect is an excellent place to start. Respecting ourselves, and treating others well no matter how they treat us is perhaps the essence of human dignity, though I could possibly be swayed in that opinion. Human beings seem to be neither animals nor gods, and there is “basic human dignity” in properly coming to terms with that. We have freedom and responsibility, suffering and happiness, war and peace. We have a short time here to live a full and dignified life - to be decent human beings and die without undue regrets.
I don’t think we need “dignity”. Especially, “dignity” that depends on this and that.
Most probably, the notion of “dignity” in many people are somewhat connected to that of “self-worth” and possibly “natural right” type thing.
On top of that, many people tend to believe that “dignity” and “self-worth”/etc are something absolute, which is logically incorrect.
When people think something is absolute, consciously or subconsciously, they can’t accept the violation of these fake absolutes.
I think we can be more peaceful if we are stripped out of all these insane notions with fake absoluteness attached to them.
Do you really think people tend to absolutize the notion of dignity? The OP’s question seemed like a pretty simple and straightforward one to me, more psychological in nature than formally philosophical. Does a completely deluded, selfish, childish person become more peaceful by abandoning any idea of dignity? I think certain concepts are helpful at certain times for certain people.
Yup. I think most people are living in the world of illusion that implies (fake) absoluteness (and fake absolute certainty) in most of their notions and evaluations.
The OP doesn’t even specify how that “dignity” is supposed to be measured/evaluated.
It’s an indication of treating the undefined, unspecified, and vague notion as if it’s something certain and meaningful.
I don’t think the question is a rational one, philosophically or psychologically.
Most probably, such person CANNOT abandon any idea they cling.
Children can be taught to be less fanatic/stupid.
But as they grow older and understand the implications of living with the uncertainty of everything, they tend to adapt sets of lies that provide fake certainty, such as “god” or any religions, communism, democracy, survival, ecology, feminism, whatever.
We want the absolute basis for our evaluations, to be absolutely certain of everything.
But the absolute cannot be found in the positive/affirming way, and most people can’t stand that answer, somehow.
They want to affirm the absolute in something that exists, which isn’t logically/rationally possible.
So, they became (or stay) illogical/irrational, and keep thinking/talking in the subconsciously implied absoluteness.
I think it’s sick and stupid. I think we should stop if we want better mental health.
But I understand too well that it will be too difficult for many, if not for most of us.
What can I say? We are born stupid and we will remain so unless we are fully ready to accept all the consequences of totally uncertain existence, that can be pretty frightening to our human monkey nature.
It’s a bit normal to freak out and then cling to absurd illusions of positive/affirming nature.
I’ve seen that very often.
It was still sad to see some good friends of mine going into the world of illusion around the age of 18 - 20, though.
I think I’m taking this thread more casually than you are.
It’s like, you can talk about ‘goodness’ without believing in an absolute or objective good. It can be worthwhile to do that, and it’s not necessarily deluded. In fact trying to talk in only absolutes would be kind of impossible. Is any language at all not “undefined, unspecified, and vague”?
Many people imply absoluteness, pretty casually and carelessly.
And I casually notice and comment, sometime.
If we imagine absoluteness in something relative, I think we can call it as a delusion.
But you are free to call it differently.
You just need to know the nature of logic/evaluation.
All evaluations are conditional and relative to the method of evaluation.
So, instead of saying about possibly absolute “worth”, you could have said “it can be worthwhile for the heck of personal pleasure”, for example.
Then, it’s clear that you are talking about relative worth and not imaginary absolute worth.
Isn’t it easy, especially if you are aware of the basis of evaluation you’ve used in your thought?
I’d say to be swayed: mutual respect relies on both parties making the effort to get along - if some-one is lacking the mutual respect that I require to get along with them: I will just ignore them/not acknowledge their existence.