Abstract

This essay deals with the complex relationship between human dignity and autonomy: a relationship that can be seen as consistency or as conflict. The author maintains that the models that reconstruct the relationship between autonomy and dignity as coherence are prevalent today. However, these models are often incompatible, because they attribute different meanings to the terms "dignity" and "autonomy". The essay argues that the conflict between those models reflects different comprehensive ethical conceptions and it is unsolvable. Moreover, it argues that democracy is precisely a method to take decisions even in front of an unsolvable ethical disagreement.