Views on ‘human dignity’ in the Netherlands

This paper examines the interpretation of ‘human dignity’ in ordinary speech. Human dignity is often employed as an argument in public ethical debates, regularly even by proponents and opponents of an issue. This suggests that the interpretation of the concept may differ greatly between people. To understand how people interpret the term, we conducted interviews using the Q-methodology, a mixed methods approach for investigating subjective matters systematically. We explored the views on human dignity of a broad cross-section of society, consisting of 29 purposively selected persons, in the Netherlands. They were asked to rank 35 aspects according to their importance for a dignified life and, subsequently, to explain their ranking of the items. The analysis revealed six distinct lay views on ‘human dignity’ in ordinary speech, in which a dignified life corresponds with either ‘enjoyment’, ‘untroubled living’, ‘self-determination’, ‘self-actualization’, trust in God’ or 'relationships'. In the light of this broad spectrum of lay views on the meaning of a dignified life, inspired by a wide array of philosophical and theological thought, it is advisable to always clarify what is meant when someone makes an appeal to human dignity in a public debate.