%0 Journal Article
%T Human dignity in the Renaissance? Dignitas hominis and ¡®spiritual counter
%A Antonio Pele
%J Philosophy & Social Criticism
%@ 1461-734X
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0191453718814874
%X The historical making of human dignity is usually understood either as a result of a progressive history of the recognition of the human being¡¯s worthiness or as an upward equalization of ranks. The present article offers a novel and different analysis. It takes the Renaissance idea of dignitas hominis as an object of study and reframes it through Michel Foucault¡¯s insights on ¡®archaeology¡¯, power and subjectivity. In doing so, the article demonstrates how dignitas hominis was produced within the so-called Renaissance episteme and as a result of what Foucault defines as the ¡®pastorate counter-conducts¡¯. Therefore, the article argues the dignitas hominis narrative aimed to debunk the authority of the ecclesiastical authorities and moulded other ways of ¡®being conducted¡¯ and of ¡®conducting oneself¡¯ in spiritual life. More radically, this narrative fashioned a ¡®spiritual counter-subjectivity¡¯ that removed confession as the main technique producing the Christian subject
%K dignitas hominis
%K episteme
%K Foucault
%K government
%K human dignity
%K humanism
%K pastorate power
%K Pico della Mirandola
%K Renaissance
%K subjectivity
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0191453718814874