Contemporary moral discourse often centers on taking action, overlooking an important step in moral thinking: recognizing others as having moral status, i.e., as persons. In this paper I concentrate on this step, arguing that respect and love are both indispensable modes of moral recognition. In slogan form, respect recognizes someone as a person, and love recognizes them as the person they are. Both modes are morally important. Making this case motivates a distinction between the attitudes themselves and the practices they give rise to. I propose that this distinction clarifies gaps on the map of moral discourse and suggests areas for further development in both the “ethics of justice” and the “ethics of care:” we ought to attend more to the attitude of justice, and to the practice of love.
On Thursday, September 20, 2018 at 5pm in Humanities 314 the UMD Philosophy Colloquium Series welcomes Dr. Erica Stonestreet of College of St. Benedicts and St. John's University. She will present her paper: Love and Respect - Attitudes and Practices of Recognition