In Defense of Human Dignity in the Capabilities Approach

This paper attempts to explore the nature of human dignity as used by Martha Nussbaum in her Capabilities Approach. After introducing the Capabilities Approach system from Creating Capabilities, I illustrate how the system relies on human dignity as a central value that takes up a justificatory role in the system, without existing as a unitary load-bearer of the system. I then shed light on the philosophical origins of Nussbaum’s theory of human nature that she applies to her notion of human dignity in the form of active striving. I connect those philosophical origins to the different qualities that active striving imbues human dignity with, which is then used to make claims upon society in the form of the minimum threshold of basic capabilities. Finally, I defend the account of human dignity that I have laid out in the paper against a contemporary critique of Nussbaum’s use of the value.