Dignity's a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It's an extension of Enlightenment-era beliefs that individuals have God-given, inviolable rights, and thus's closely related to concepts like virtue, respect, self-respect, autonomy, human rights, and enlightened reason. Dignity's generally proscriptive and cautionary: in politics it's usually synonymous to 'human dignity', and's used to critique the t… (More on Dignity)