Essay Property, Dignity, and Human Flourishing

The relationship between human dignity and human rights has become increasingly well-established in recent years. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union declares, for example, “Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected.” What is not so clear is the relationship between human dignity and human flourishing. For one thing, even if we all shared the same conception of human dignity (highly doubtful), we surely do not all share a clear understanding of human flourishing, let alone how that concept relates to dignity. Even less likely do we all share a well-defined understanding of how property relates to the other two, i.e., human dignity and human flourishing. My task here is to sketch such an understanding.