1st Edition
Love, Justice, and Autonomy Philosophical Perspectives
Philosophers have long been interested in love and its general role in morality. This volume focuses on and explores the complex relation between love and justice as it appears within loving relationships, between lovers and their wider social context, and the broader political realm. Special attention is paid to the ensuing challenge of understanding and respecting the lovers’ personal autonomy in all three contexts.
Accordingly, the essays in this volume are divided into three thematic sections. Section I aims at shedding further light on conceptual and practical issues concerning the compatibility or incompatibility of love and justice within relationships of love. For example, are loving relations inherently unjust? Might love require justice? Or do love and justice belong to distinct moral domains? The essays in Section II consider the relation between the lovers on the one hand and their broader societal environment on the other. Specifically, how exactly are love and impartiality related? Are they compatible or not? Is it unjust to favor one’s beloved? Finally, Section III looks at the political dimensions of love and justice. How, for instance, do various accounts of love inform how we are to relate to our fellow citizens? If love is taken to play an important role in fostering or hindering the development of personal autonomy, what are the political implications that need to be addressed, and how?
In addressing these questions, this book engenders a better understanding both of conceptual and practical issues regarding the relation between love, justice, and autonomy as well as their broader societal and political implications. It will be of interest to advanced students and scholars working on the philosophy of love from ethical, political, and psychological angles.
1. Introduction
Rachel Fedock, Michael Kühler, and Raja Rosenhagen
Section I: Justice Within Relationships of Love
2. The Amorality of Romantic Love
Arina Pismenny
3. Autonomy, Love, and Receptivity
Carter Johnson
4. A Minimalist Conception of Love
Getty Lustila
5. "Someone I Would Have Hated to Be": The Threat of Love in Rear Window and Vertigo
Troy Jollimore
6. Murdochian Presentationalism, Autonomy, and the Ideal Lovers’ Pledge
Raja Rosenhagen
7. Dialogical Love and its Internal Normative Fabric
Angelika Krebs
8. Tolerance, Love and Justice
Christian Maurer
9. Abandonment and the Egalitarianism of Love
Tony Milligan
Section II: Loving Partiality and Moral Impartiality
10. Dissolving the Illusion of the Love and Justice Dichotomy
Rachel Fedock
11. Love and Our Moral Relations With Others
Nora Kreft
12. Acting Out: How Personal Relationships Provide Basic Moral Practical Reasons
Shane Gronholz
13. Love for One’s Own or Justice for All?
Marilyn Friedman
Section III: The Political Dimension of Love and Justice
14. Love’s Extension: Confucian Familial Love and the Challenge of Impartiality
Andrew Lambert
15. Love as Union and Political Liberalism
Michael Kühler
16. The Freedom that Comes with Love
Niklas Forsberg
17. Love, Activism, and Social Justice
Barrett Emerick
Biography
Rachel Fedock is Senior Lecturer at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University and affiliate faculty member of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University. Her research interests include feminist ethics, Black feminism, gender, race, moral psychology, the philosophy of love and care.
Michael Kühler is Assistant Professor at the University of Twente, Netherlands, and “Privatdozent” (roughly equaling Associate Professor) at Münster University, Germany. His research interests include ethics, metaethics, applied ethics, esp. medical ethics and ethics of technology, political philosophy, and the philosophy of love.
Raja Rosenhagen is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Ashoka University in Sonipat, Haryana (India). His interests span philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, epistemology, logic, Indian philosophy, and, of course, philosophy of love and friendship.
