Wednesday, April 16, 2014

We, Respect, Trust

Unlike conceiving a person as an It, referring to them as 'He' or 'She' does not dehumanize them.  Furthermore, unlike 'Him' or 'Her', each expresses the recognition of someone as an autonomous subject.  But, each is exclusionary, i  e. a He or a She is implicitly not part of a We.  Thus, He or She can be respected, though not necessarily trusted.  Hence, contrary to Kant's principle, a society mediated by Respect is not an optimal one--it can lack Trust, a shortcoming perhaps stemming from a limitation in his concept of Reason.

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