So even though one politics springs from the other, by one
of those shifts in the definition of key terms with which
we’re familiar, the two diverge quite seriously from each
other. One basis for the divergence comes out even more
clearly when we go beyond what each requires that we acknowledge—
certain universal rights in one case, a particular
identity on the other—and look at the underlying intuitions
of value.
The politics of equal dignity is based on the idea that all
humans are equally worthy of respect. It is underpinned by
a notion of what in human beings commands respect, however
we may try to shy away from this “metaphysical” background.
For Kant, whose use of the term dignity was one of
the earliest influential evocations of this idea, what commanded
respect in us was our status as rational agents, capable
of directing our lives through principles.17 Something like
this has been the basis for our intuitions of equal dignity ever
since, though the detailed definition of it may have changed.
Thus, what is picked out as of worth here is a universal
human potential, a capacity that all humans share. This potential,
rather than anything a person may have made of it, is
what ensures that each person deserves respect. Indeed, our
sense of the importance of potentiality reaches so far that we