Diagnosing Dignity’s De-Realization: Lessons From The ‘Laws Of Captivity’ Thesis

What does it mean to speak of dignity’s de-realization much less to diagnose the experience of it? This article draws inspiration from law, culture and the humanities to address these underexamined questions. I outline the relational problem of dignity’s de-realization and rely on a clinical case to illuminate the problem’s interpersonal dynamics. I describe the theoretical assumptions that inform my assessment of dignity’s co-constitutive de-realization. These assumptions form a metaphysical anthropology sufficient to make socio-cultural diagnosis possible. I revisit the society-of-captives thesis to explain how the interpersonal dynamics of dignity’s de-realization in the clinical case are more disturbingly constitutive of society’s own calcifying captivity. Given these de-stabilizing conditions of collective and interdependent captivity, I conclude by suggesting how to confront dignity’s de-realization. These transgressive speculations emphasize the cultivation of a trans-desistance philosophy. I initiate the article’s diagnostic intention with an introduction to the general thesis on the laws of captivity.