CEPPA Talk (in-person & online) – Barry Maguire (Edinburgh)

Title: Two Moralities of Recognition

Abstract: According to moralities of recognition, fundamental moral norms are norms for living together. Moral norms explain how living in unity is possible despite being separate individuals, they explain how we can relate to each other as persons that are more than mere sources of benefits and burdens, obstacles and opportunities. Those who relate to each other according to these norms stand in relations of mutual recognition. By contrast, some moral theories are atomistic — they deny that fundamental moral norms are communal norms. The paper explains the appeal of morality of recognition and elaborates a distinction between two kinds of moralities of recognition. Some envision a community founded on respect; according to these theories, mutual recognition is mutual respect. Others offer a fundamentally different vision of the moral community, namely, one founded on concern; according to these theories, mutual recognition is mutual concern. We examine T. M. Scanlon’s contractualism as a fully developed, influential, and relatively recent version of respect morality and argue that Scanlon’s morality of respect has certain distinctive structural features. We then articulate the contours of an alternative, morality of concern, which offers a different idea of moral community and has a distinctively different structure. Our goal is not to present an argument for morality of concern, but to explain what makes it attractive and to make clear that choosing between the two kinds of moralities of recognition involves choosing between two substantively different visions of how to live together.

Location: Edgecliffe G03