Plenary Meeting Report of Dignity Studies – Group B03Capability Damage and Human Dignity: Ethics and Philosophy of Welfare and Economic Policy
Reiko Goto (Economic philosophy), Minae Inahara (Phenomenology), Haruka Hikasa (Bioethics)
Secretariat: Mami Kanazawa (Postdoctoral Fellow, Development and Welfare Studies), Kazuyo Tanimoto (International Activity Assistance), Yuki Kawakita(Researcher, Economic history)
Basic Goal Setting
The purpose of Group B03 is to critically examine the methodological frameworks of existing academic research (especially mainstream economics, which has led and been led by liberal democracy) and the state of the welfare nation (especially the shape to come after the recent reform of the basic structure of social welfare “from measures to contracts”), focusing on dignity issues emerging in clinical situations of care, medicine and welfare, and in the lives of sick and disabled people.
Human dignity is an inviolable absolute that cannot be damaged or weighed in comparison. This statement evokes the nobility of the obligation to respect dignity, but also the importance of denouncing violations of the obligation to respect dignity, measuring and socially compensating for the unmeasured harm suffered by each individual.
-> We will develop theories and methods for “measurement”, paying attention to the tension between “what not to measure and what should not to measure” and “what to measure and what we have to measure”.
Results up to FY2024
The members with different specialties organized symposiums and seminars according to each other’s interests and conducted field surveys, which gave a great impetus to future research. “Dementia and Dignity, Personality, and the Best”, “Disability and Gender Intersectionality: Dignity, Human Rights and Ethics”, “Phenomenology and Dignity: Considering Experience and Discrimination”, “International Conference on Individual Welfare and Industrial Relations”, etc., the main results of the study can be summarized in two parts below.
1) By sharing a comprehensive theoretical and practical framework, such as capability approach, disability studies and phenomenology, dementia and bioethics, etc., a more comprehensive and profound composition (view) on “dignity studies research” and “welfare economic policy making” based on it is obtained.
2) Several research techniques have been developed and being theorized to be mutually conscious of the bias of each researcher’s position, while actively utilizing the diverse and multilayered nature of the parties involved.
Goal Setting for FY2025
1. By positing the operative concept of “capability to dignity,” we seek to identify the facts of the violation of the obligation to respect dignity and to find ways to measure the capability of individuals, including their dignity.
Capability here refers to the opportunity set (freely, rationally selectable, and rationally and empathetically imaginable) of “ways of living that the person has reason to value”.
In practice, the content is defined by the resources available to the person and the person’s ability to use the resources. The lack of such resources is considered the basis (right) for requesting social transfer of resources.
(We seek to formulate a method to measure the capability of individuals which “move freely in and out” (of various spaces such as homes, schools, workplaces, institutions, hospitals, borders, etc.). While focusing on the duality of human behavior, the point is this:
1）Exploration of the selection and tabulation of the list of functions, including dignity,
2）Formulation of a proposition that captures the intrinsic relationship between freedom and equality,
3）Conceptualization of individual, group, and location-crossing identities.
International Seminar from May 29 to June 2, 2025. Subject “How to incorporate normative evaluation into advanced research in economics?”, (Labor Economics: 7 seniors and young people invited, 6 young people of social choice theory invited.)
Outreach: A critical examination of the policy of shifting from “welfare paid transportation” (for the disabled, people in need of care, and other vulnerable transportation persons) to “ridesharing.” (Welfare business NPOs and user citizens)
2. We will focus on the “lived experience” of minority parties (in particular, people with disabilities and their families) in terms of their “difficulty in living” and “dignity,” using a feminist framework that focuses on relationships, physicality, situationality, vulnerability, and subjectivity as key characteristics, as well as a phenomenological approach to clarify these issues.
The project will raise questions about how our understanding of and response to the relationship between life and death can be reconfigured for marginalized individuals and the broader population, about what is needed to restore the dignity and human rights of women with disabilities and to establish ethics, and conceive what research and practice as dignity studies should look like.
Outreach: Planning and operation of philosophy cafes with highly involved participants. (For parents of current students and graduates of special needs schools)
3. We will examine how the “dignity” of people with dementia is perceived and how it is respected, primarily in the context of medical and care decision-making. By reviewing the theories of previous research in bioethics and exchanging opinions with family members and health and care professionals, we will also clarify how to respect the dignity of people with dementia in decision-making.
Especially in cases where the recipient of medical treatment and care is considered to be “not autonomous,” such as in the case of dementia, we will examine what benefits and harms are perceived in the decision-making process for the “person” in order to understand the various ways in which the dignity of the “person” and the way to respect it are perceived.
Outreach: Cooperation with Dipex-Japan (Identifying and measuring individual capability based on the use of the Health and Illness Narratives database)