Translating Dignity Electra Street
Hello everyone,
As way of introduction please respond to the following prompt for the first day of our meeting, on August 30th. Please add your location, or any other information about yourself you would like the class to know about you
Exercise 1. Write one or two paragraphs about your first encounter with the word or experience of ‘dignity’. What was the context? Describe as best as you can the meaning you attached to the word. Did you hear/read the word, or did you witness an event, action of a person, or an internal feeling ? What did you understand the word to mean? Did it accompany any emotions?
If English is not your first language, translate the word dignity into your mother tongue and reflect upon the differences in meaning and interpretation.
Exercise 2: ADD THIS TO WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY POSTED.
Translate the first sentence of the first article of the UDHR English UDHR.into your national language. Compare your translation with the translation on the website of the translation project above. In what way does your translation complicate, change, or shed light on the original English prose on of the UDHR?
- Jean Quataert, Advocating Dignity.
- United Nations, International Day of Human Fraternity, “On 20 October 2010, the General Assembly in resolution A/RES/65/5 pointed out that mutual understanding and interreligious dialogue constitute important dimensions of a culture of peace and established World Interfaith Harmony Week as a way to promote harmony between all people regardless of their faith. It further recognized the imperative need for dialogue among different faiths and religions to enhance mutual understanding, harmony and cooperation among people.At the core of all the faith systems and traditions is the recognition that we are all in this together and that we need to love and support one another to live in harmony and peace in an environmentally sustainable world. Our world continues to be beset by conflict and intolerance with rising number of refugees and the internally displaced in a hostile and unwelcoming world around them. We are also, unfortunately, witnessing messages of hate spreading discord among people. The need for spiritual guidance has never been greater. It is imperative that we double our efforts to spread the message of good neighborliness based on our common humanity, a message shared by all faith traditions.
- Carmen Cramer, Can robots have dignity? In Artificial IntelligenceAbstractThe progress towards a society in which robots are our daily attendants seems to be inevitable. Sharing our workplaces, our homes and public squares with robots calls for an exploration of how we want and need to organize our cohabitation with these increasingly autonomous machines. Not only the question of how robots should treat humans or the surrounding world, but also the questions of how humans should treat robots, and how robots should treat each other, may and should be asked. Considering the Kantian idea that possessing dignity is based on autonomy and the fact that robots are becoming increasingly autonomous and rational, one of these questions might be whether robots can have dignity. Two issues must therefore be addressed before answering the question: 1. What are robots and why should we think about “robot dignity” at all? and 2. What is dignity? The answer to the first question is necessary to understand the object of investigation and will be considered briefly. The second more complex question requires a short glimpse on the existing theories and the history of the term before a proposal will be given on how to understand dignity. Finally, it will be explained why robots cannot be rightly seen as possessors of dignity., Is Dignity Given By God?
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Hi everyone! My name is Tarlan. I am a second-year student from Kazakhstan majoring in Computer Science.
The first time I encountered the word “dignity” was in my childhood, when I was watching a cartoon about a Kazakh “batyr”. “Batyr” is essentially a word used to describe heroes, warriors who fought courageously in the name of the nation. In the cartoon, Qabanbay batyr was dignified for commanding the army of allied troops to liberate the cities of Sairam, Tashkent, and the territory of East Kazakhstan from the Dzungars, an enemy tribe. Thus, for a long time I believed that dignity is what a person earns by demonstrating courage, fearlessness, and of course receiving respect, admiration from other members of society. However, my perception of the word “dignity” changed once I learnt about the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I understood that dignity is an inherent, inalienable right of every human to be respected and valued, regardless of his/her status, wealth or any other factors.
“Абырой” is a Kazakh translation of the word “dignity”. It is mostly used to talk about one’s reputation in a society, rather than the rights and freedom of a person. In my mother tongue, we also say “Абыройымды түсірме”, which means “don’t bring down my dignity”, as if dignity is something that can be measured and lost by someone.
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I don’t remember an exact instance of when I encountered the word of “dignity”. As I grew up, I became aware of this idea of “اوقات” in Urdu. It can translated to status or worth and often times it was used around to me denote things we could not do because of our lack of auqaat. It is also a type of worth that is very reliant on you are perceived socially. For example, if you come from a wealthy or educated family you have somehow earned more auqaat. If you do things that can be looked down on society, like being rude or standoffish, you auqaat can serve as a justification. It became an intrinsic part of the socio-economic hierarchy. After looking at the translation of the UN of Human Rights, they actually used two words to replace “inherent dignity.” They added the words “عزت” meaning respect and “حرمت” which has a more mystical connotation and is similar to the sacredness of a person. This is interesting to me as all these words revolved around the idea that your “dignity” must be perceived. Does our intrinsic worth come from our role in society? Do we still have this worth if no one is there to perceive it?
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