The final session of Lynn Hunt’s masterclass was dedicated to discussing three questions that the fellows deemed particularly important. The first question revisited the idea of universalism: Was the very idea of seeking universal principles a Western imposition? Is ‘human dignity’ a notion that is more acceptable across cultures than ‘human rights’? The second question related to meanings: What does ‘dignity’ mean, as opposed to the meaning of other terms, such as ‘rights’, ‘honor’, or ‘human image’? How come that certain terms become popular at some point in history, how does the meaning of the terms change? The third question touched upon broader concepts that were somehow connected to and yet different from dignity: How is human dignity related to autonomy and to equality?

In the afternoon the fellows left to Berlin and other sites of Germany.