Introduction: 1. Human dignity from a legal perspective; 2. Human dignity - concept, discussions, philosophical perspectives; Part I. Origins of the Concept in European History: 3. Meritocratic and civic dignity in Greco-Roman antiquity; 4. Human dignity in the Middle Ages, twelfth to fourteenth century; 5. Human dignity in late-medieval spiritual and political conflicts; 6. The Council of Valladolid, 1550-1: a European disputation about the human dignity of indigenous peoples of the Americas; 7. Human dignity in the Renaissance; 8. Martin Luther's conception of human dignity; 9. Natural rights vs. human dignity: two conflicting traditions; 10. Human dignity in Rousseau and the French Revolution; 11. Human dignity and socialism; 12. Human dignity in the Jewish tradition; Part II. Beyond the Scope of the European Tradition: 13. The concepts of human dignity in moral philosophies of indigenous peoples of the Americas; 14. Human dignity in the Islamic world; 15. Hinduism: the universal self in a class society; 16. Buddhism: inner dignity and absolute altruism; 17. Human dignity in traditional Chinese Confucianism; 18. Dignity in traditional Chinese Daoism; Part III. Systematic Conceptualization: 19. Social and cultural presuppositions for the use of the concept of human dignity; 20. Is human dignity the ground of human rights?; 21. Human dignity - can a historical foundation alone suffice?; 22. Kantian perspectives on the rational basis of human dignity; 23. Kantian dignity: a critique; 24. Human dignity and human rights in Alan Gewirth's moral philosophy; 25. Human dignity in the capability approach; 26. Human dignity in Catholic thought; 27. Jacques Maritain's personalist conception of human dignity; 28. Scheler and human dignity; 29. Dignity and the Other: dignity and the phenomenological tradition; 30. Dignity, fragility, singularity in Paul Ricoeur's ethics; 31. Human dignity as universal nobility; 32. Dignity in the Ubuntu tradition; 33. Posthuman dignity; 34. Dignity as the right to have rights: human dignity in Hannah Arendt; 35. Individual and collective dignity; Part IV. Legal Implementation: 36. Equal dignity in international human rights; 37. Is human dignity a useless concept? Legal perspectives; 38. Human dignity in French law; 39. Human dignity in German law; 40. Human dignity in US law; 41. Human dignity in South American law; 42. Human dignity in South African law; 43. The Islamic world and the alternative declarations of human rights; 44. The protection of human dignity under Chinese law; 45. Human dignity in Japanese law; 46. The place of dignity in the Indian constitution; Part V. Conflicts and Violence: 47. Human dignity and war; 48. Treatment of prisoners and torture; 49. Human dignity and prostitution; 50. Human dignity, immigration and refugees; Part VI. Contexts of Justice: 51. Human dignity and social welfare; 52. Dignity and global justice; 53. Human dignity and people with disabilities; 54. Human dignity as a concept for the economy; 55. Human dignity and gender inequalities; 56. The rise and fall of freedom of online expression; Part VII. Biology and Bioethics: 57. The threefold challenge of Darwinism to an ethics of human dignity; 58. On the border of life and death: human dignity in bioethics; 59. Human dignity and commodification in bioethics; 60. Dignity only for humans? A controversy; 61. Dignity only for humans? On the dignity and inherent value of non-human beings; 62. Human dignity and future generations.