Kant introduces a duty to oneself to respect oneself and to avoid servility-or not to make oneself a worm. I argue for a wider understanding of this duty:
Persons ought to respect their own dignity as persons with autonomy, rationality, and morality (A), but also as personalities, who embody dignity and live a dignified life (B).
A corresponds to Kant's concept of duty as the necessity of an action done out of respect for the moral law, B is an obligation arising from the practical necessity that follows from one's self-understanding as an individual personality in a socio-cultural context. A and B relate to two types of dignity that are discussed in current debates. I argue that both types of dignity are equally relevant for understanding and respecting one's own dignity.
Finally I discuss why, even though persons can behave like worms, others ought not to step on them.

, , , ,
doi.org/10.1515/dzph-2018-0043, hdl.handle.net/1765/112039
Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Philosophie

Bauer, K. (2018). ,,Wer sich aber zum Wurm macht .."-Würde als Selbstverpflichtung. Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Philosophie, 66(5), 607–625. doi:10.1515/dzph-2018-0043