dignity of labour

{{Short description|Philosophy that respects all forms of labor equally}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}The dignity of labour or the dignity of work is the philosophical holding that all types of jobs are respected equally, and no occupation is considered superior and none of the jobs should be discriminated on any basis. This view holds that all types of work (jobs) are necessary in a society and it is absolutely wrong to consider any work good or bad: the work itself is a dignity.

Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle has been cited as "the first to espouse the 'dignity of work'".{{Cite web |last=Rowland |first=Tim |title='Labor is Life' or 'Workers of the world, unite'? Future of capitalism lies in the middle |url=https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/story/opinion/columns/2022/09/12/where-do-employee-and-employer-share-productivity-in-harmony-capitalism-socialism-tim-rowland/66769673007/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |website=Herald-Mail Media |language=en-US}} In Past and Present (1843), he wrote:

Labour is Life: from the inmost heart of the Worker rises his god-given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness,—to all knowledge, 'self-knowledge' and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins.{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Collected Works, Volume XIII. Past and Present, by Thomas Carlyle. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26159/26159-h/26159-h.htm |access-date=2023-04-08 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}

Former U.S. President Joe Biden made restoring "the dignity of work" a central tenet of his 2020 campaign and administration.{{Cite web |last=House |first=The White |date=2022-09-05 |title=Remarks by President Biden Celebrating Labor Day and the Dignity of American Workers |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/09/05/remarks-by-president-biden-celebrating-labor-day-and-the-dignity-of-american-workers/ |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=The White House |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=House |first=The White |date=2023-02-08 |title=Remarks of President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address as Prepared for Delivery |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/02/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery/ |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=The White House |language=en-US}}

About

Social reformers such as Basava and his contemporary Sharanas, as well as Mahatma Gandhi, were prominent advocates of the dignity of labour.{{cite web |last=Suryanarayanan |first=A. N. |date=2009 |title=Dignity of labour |url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/24246/dignity-labour.html |publisher=The Deccan Herald}}

The dignity of labour is one of the major themes in Christian ethics,{{cite book|last=Osborn|first=Andrew Rule|title=Christian Ethics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r6BuAAAAMAAJ|access-date=4 July 2016|year=1940|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|page=64|quote=This conception of the divine dignity of work is distinctive of Hebrew and Christian Ethics.}} and as such, it is upheld by the Anglican Communion,{{cite book|last=Norman|first=Edward|title=An Anglican Catechism|date=1 May 2003|publisher=A&C Black|language=en |isbn=9780826467003|page=146|quote=The Church upholds the dignity of labour, whether it is in productive or service work, or whether it is in the rearing of children and the maintenance of the home.}} in Catholic social teaching, in Methodist principles,{{cite book|last=Bundy|first=Colin|title=The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry|year=1979|publisher=University of California Press|language=en|isbn=9780520037540|page=[https://archive.org/details/risefallofsoutha0000bund/page/39 39]|quote=Methodist teaching, especially, favoured the creation of wage-earners and stressed the dignity of labour and desirability of manual skills.|url=https://archive.org/details/risefallofsoutha0000bund/page/39}} and in Reformed theology.{{cite book|last=Ogier|first=Darryl Mark|title=Reformation and Society in Guernsey|year=1996|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|language=en|isbn=9780851156033|page=173|quote=Work discipline was engendered through such measures, and through the general (Calvinist-inspired) emphasis on the dignity of labour in one's calling.}}

In Roman Catholicism, usually titled "The dignity of work and the rights of workers" the affirmation of the dignity of human labour is found in several papal encyclicals, most notably Pope John Paul II's Laborem Exercens, published 15 September 1981.{{cite web |title=The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers |url=http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/the-dignity-of-work-and-the-rights-of-workers.cfm |website=United States Conference of Catholic Bishops}}

In his 2021 book The Tyranny of Merit, philosopher Michael Sandel says that a spiritual revolution that celebrates the dignity of labour rather than meritocracy is the way to rectify the loss of faith in institutions evidenced in populism.{{Cite book |last=Sandel |first=Michael J. |title=The tyranny of merit: what's become of the common good? |date=2021 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-199117-7 |location=London}}

dignity of labour

About

See also

References

Further reading