Some ideas about self-respect

DIGNITY IS AN END

self-respect yields the idea of self-worth or human dignity. as autonomous moral agents, we are ends in themselves with the "absolute inner worth" that Kant calls "dignity" (Würde).

Dignity is not a worth that others can give to you, or one has to earn or waive or give up. If you are a person you have DIGNITY, regardless of personal qualities, social status, and accomplishments and failures.

Dignity is intrinsic worth: we all have dignity simply in virtue of having been born with the rational capacities that make us persons. Persons are all equal in dignity, and this gives each person both the moral status of an equal person among persons and an equal set of basic rights, at least some of which are inviolable and inalienable.

now, let's address self respect by applying Kant's second formulation to oneself:

treat yourself as an END never MERELY as a means to an end (taken from Paul Dodsohn A Personal Guide For the Honest)

imagine these: 1. Wasted time, 2. Bad sex, 3. Drugs, 4. Bad companies.  

let's tackle those:

1. Wasted time: time flies. because of its temporal importance, time is the reserve of one's life. I must save my time to become as productive as I possibly can. 

Wasting time is WASTING LIFE. Wasting life is being self-destructive.  

2. Bad sex: clearly, sex is more than sexual pleasure. sex is a vehicle for meaningful relationships -as with romantic love. but there's bad sex when sex turns against one's dignity and self-growth. 

Bad sex leaves us regretful, empty, and emotionally scarred. 

3. Drugs: A drug habit undermines one's dignity by making the person dependent on their worst possible traits. 

Since "under the influence" one is not fully oneself, drugs may make us do regrettable things.  

4. Bad companies: these are bad relations that impede one's flourishing. they waste one's time because very little comes out of it. one shouldn't be friends with people who are disrespectful to themselves or others. 

With bad friends I end up doing what I ought to stop myself from doing.