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
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.
