Dignity is the supreme good of the human being. But what does it consist of? Bieri analyzes carefully and with a precise look at our experiences the different situations in which we perceive it, since in the background and in particular it is about our dignity.

The leading thought holds that dignity is not an abstract, metaphysical property, but a way and a way of living our life and facing its challenges. It refers to the way we are treated by others and how we relate to them and to ourselves. What is at stake is our autonomy, our truthfulness, our respect for privacy and our capacity for genuine encounters. The way in which Bieri speaks of these themes combines the transparency of thought with the poetic density of human experience.

Our life as thinking, living and working beings is fragile and is always threatened both from within and from outside. The way of life of dignity is the attempt to keep this threat in check. It is a question of self-consciously enduring our ever threatened life. What matters is not only letting oneself be carried away by things that are endured, but confronting them with a certain attitude, which reads: I accept the challenge. The way of life of dignity is not, therefore, any form of life, but the existential response to the existential experience of the threat.