Research Lotte Spreeuwenberg

Abstract

Although a commandment to 'love thy neighbor' is an important feature of most age-old religious traditions, a moral obligation to love seems to be unpopular in contemporary analytic philosophy. In light of recent societal challenges such as polarization and hate for 'out-groups', we might however be in need for a contemporary secular moral call for love, if we have in mind the goal of a peaceful and embracing society. This project investigates whether we can make sense of the argument that we should love one another. It aims to develop an account of love and morality inspired by the ideas of Iris Murdoch to defend that we do, thereby rejecting the widely held claim that love and morality are somehow in tension. The main investigation consists in researching on the basis of which grounds it can be said that we should love everyone. The project also aims to offer a practical guide: what are our exact responsibilities in loving everyone? What difference would such a claim make in comparison with an already widely established and acknowledged moral claim for respect or empathy? The project aims to answer 1) societal challenges such as polarization, 2) skeptics of moral love in contemporary analytical philosophy and 3) feminist worries that could arise with a moral obligation to love. The project will address moral questions of interest to a wide public, because it concerns love on both a personal and political level.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Schaubroeck Katrien
• Fellow: Spreeuwenberg Lotte

Research team(s)

• Center for Ethics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

While most moral philosophers concentrate on questions that arise in the public sphere, the majority of people will be confronted with moral questions in their private lives, more particularly regarding their conduct towards the people they love. On a daily basis we make moral choices in the way we react to our friends' favours, our lovers' expectations, our children's needs, our parents' wishes. Yet some moral philosophers think that love in general, and family love in particular, falls outside the moral domain, and is governed by its own rules. They reject moral evaluations of love (as a motive or as an attitude) as overly moralistic. This project starts from the hypothesis that morality does have a bearing on love, and examines the objections against two theses: that it can be true of someone that he has a duty to love a particular person, and that once people love each other, their love can be better or worse in moral regard. After examining the theoretical and conceptual problems that affect the idea of a duty to love and the idea of a morally defect love, the results will be applied to parental love and filial love. Ought parents not only to take care of their children but also to love them? Can they do so in better or worse ways, and can these qualitative differences be spelled out in moral terms? Can they demand that their children love them back? The aspired formulation of an ethics of parental and filial love will fill a lacuna in contemporary moral philosophy, and will address moral questions of interest to a wide public insofar as they are at the heart of family life.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Schaubroeck Katrien
• Fellow: Spreeuwenberg Lotte

Research team(s)

• Center for Ethics

Project type(s)

• Research Project