This article outlines the main debates on the concept of dignity in thought using Reinhardt Koselleck's conceptual history methodology. These debates present dimensions and complexities that, although they began in antiquity, are still ongoing and open. The various tensions that accompany the debate make it impossible to reach a consensus on the character of dignity; moreover, the concept has become more complex and has incorporated new dimensions and social actors throughout its evolution. Rather than resolving these tensions to form a single concept, the historical evolution is shown in key authors who have directly or indirectly dealt with the concept in their works, namely: Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine of Hippo, Pico Della Mirandola, Locke, Voltaire, Hume, Rosseau, Wollstonecraft, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Bloch, Arendt, Habermas, Rawls and Nussbaum, who have shed light on the dimensions of dignity, and its scope. The concept of dignity remains open, the question of its inherence, its human essentiality, its collective dimension, its relationship with freedom, autonomy and equality, as well as its possible institutional configuration in law and politics, show that, for modern society, progress as a horizon cannot be separated from the political normativity linked to its own definition.