Jeff Richards Web Diary

Saturday, April 26, 2003

Respect and Politics I am reading a book on the issue of respect in social relations by the sociologist Richard Sennett (Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality, Allen Lane, London, 2003). Sennett engages in a vigorous unpacking of the concept of respect in modern society. His argument is about the problem of respect in an unequal society. Respect is undermined by inequality. If we wish a society based on respect among humans, then can only come about if we resolve the issues of inequality.  The issue of respect has been an interest of mine since I had my encounters with the late Professor Bill Brugger, whose concerns in philosophy centred on the issue of respect and its role in society. I will probably write about the way in which Sennet conceptualises respect at a later date. The philosophy of human relations was initially low on the agenda of western Marxism through the 1960’s and 1970’s. There seemed to be more pressing issues dealing with the struggle to transform whole societies that concerned left wing intellectuals. With the ‘retreat of hope’ that followed from the triumphs of neo-liberalism the concerns became more focused on social relations among humans. Never the less, the lefts considerations of these issues come from the background influenced from psychoanalysis. I remember asking Brugger once if the issue was ‘mutual respect’ and he said no, it was about respect. I understood this to mean that regardless of mutuality we ought to behave with respect. We ought even respect the torturer and executioner in the concentration camp. In other words, much as we might want to, we should not do onto the torturer and executioner what they have done to others. Our response ought to be based on principles of justice and standards of decency. Why? Probably because we can only maintain respect for ourselves if we behave in this way. Respect is recognition. I would go further than the sociologist and argue that the roots of respect are social and biological. Recognition begins in the simplest forms of life. Recognition evolves into a complex self awareness we end up calling respect. Biological beings are confronted by a continuum between coercive relations and cooperation. In other words there is on one side the use of force and destruction to maintain the existence of a biological being and on the other there is the system of co-operation among biological beings that facilitates survival and reproduction. For all biological beings there is dialectical combination of ‘force and consent’ (co-operation). The dialectic of force and consent has a qualitative leap among self aware biological beings (humans). There emerge complex relations among human societies. Social relations also run along this continuum of force and consent. It is possible to conceive a society where force (domination, subordination) is at the center of social relations. Yet even in such societies there continue to exist forms of co-operation and behaviour based on co-operation. As societies evolve increasingly complex relations among interests there evolve forms of recognition that place co-operation at the centre of social interaction. From co-operation there emerges the concept of respect, which we might describe as co-operative recognition among humans. Saturday, April 26, 2003 6:31:00 PM    comment []