Homo adorans and the grounds of human dignity

Human dignity is a complex moral status, including at least four dimensions of worth: inherent worth, unique worth, inviolable worth, and irreplaceable worth. What explains why humans are bearers of dignity, so understood? Four families of accounts can be found in the literature: psychological capacity accounts, interest-based accounts, relational accounts, and primitivist accounts. While each of these accounts is able to explain at least one of the dimensions of worth, each forfeits at least one of the dimensions as well. We can draw together the insights of each failed account to build a successful hybrid, as follows. Humans, as such, are stewards of the good: impelled to acknowledge it, to delight in it, to be drawn to worship its ultimate source, but also to be tormented by the deprivation of it. Such creatures are bearers of dignity in all its dimensions.