Publication Type

Book Chapter

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

1-2017

Abstract

Somewhere near the beginning of the eighteenth century a new concept of “dignity” was emerging alongside the rise of a new socioeconomic class, the bourgeoisie. This chapter explores the development of this distinctive new concept of dignity, investigating first the key elements of the so-called bourgeois virtues that provided content to this new ethos of dignity. Next, it probes the economic, political, and social conditions that facilitated the emergence and diffusion of bourgeois dignity during the eighteenth century. Finally, it discusses how this new understanding of dignity was diffused throughout society by one of the most influential literary endeavors of the period, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele’s The Spectator (1711–1714).

Keywords

Addison, Steele, bourgeois dignity, eighteenth century, commercial, virtue, Spectator, independence, self-making, politeness

Discipline

Philosophy

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Dignity: A history

Editor

Remy Debes

First Page

269

Last Page

289

ISBN

9780199385997

Publisher

Oxford University Press

City or Country

New York

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199385997.003.0013

Included in

Philosophy Commons

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