Badcott David
Centre for Applied Ethics, Cardiff University, P.O. Box 94, Cardiff CF10 3XB, UK.
Med Health Care Philos. 2003;6(2):123-31. doi: 10.1023/a:1024166912191.
The paper is a preliminary examination of the origin and role of psychological perception or "feeling" of dignity in human beings. Following Ayala's naturalistic account of morality, a sense of emotional dignity is seen as an outcome of processes of natural selection, cultural evolution, and above all a need for social inclusion. It is suggested that the existence of emotional dignity as part of a human species-related continuum provides an explanation of why we treat those in a persistent vegetative state, the severely and hopelessly mentally impaired, the senile demented, cadavers and archaeological remains with dignity and respect. For older Europeans, dissonance between physical and mental abilities, unfamiliarity with social and cultural changes and relative proximity to death may influence their emotional dignity and hence vulnerability.
本文是对人类尊严的心理感知或“感受”的起源与作用的初步考察。遵循阿亚拉对道德的自然主义解释，情感尊严感被视为自然选择、文化进化过程的结果，最重要的是社会包容需求的结果。有人认为，作为与人类物种相关连续体一部分的情感尊严的存在，解释了为什么我们以尊严和尊重对待处于持续植物人状态的人、严重且无可救药的精神障碍者、老年痴呆症患者、尸体和考古遗迹。对于年长的欧洲人来说，身体和心理能力之间的不一致、对社会和文化变化的不熟悉以及相对接近死亡可能会影响他们的情感尊严，从而影响他们的脆弱性。
