When we follow the threads of political argument dominant in the new millennium back to their root assumptions, we sooner or later encounter claims about "human dignity" and the "respect" it is supposed to command. These categories are now the dominant vehicle for expressing a commitment to humanitarian improvement, pretending to a significance at once universal and foundational for late modern politics and its avowed project of civilization. Social criticism and protest, democratic deliberation, as well as our efforts to manage our deepest ethical disagreements now all seem unthinkable apart from these categories. Our very consciousness of ourselves as enjoying legal, moral, and civic standing today speaks the language of respect and human dignity. Few would find it easy to explain the significance of other key political concepts - justice, freedom, autonomy, impartiality, reciprocity, equality, rights, property, cruelty, tolerance, civility - without at some point speaking of the "equal respect due to all," the "dignity of the human person," the importance of "mutual respect," and so forth. Today, it seems, no social and political practice can vindicate itself except before the tribunal of human dignity"--