Relationships are of utmost importance to our lives in that they give rise to various kinds of goods. Yet, they also make us vulnerable to distinct kinds of wrongs and harms. So far, philosophers have given some attention to the topics of friendship, parent-child relationships, and love, but many other kinds of relationships have been neglected. Moreover, philosophical theorizing has mostly focused on the value of relationships, while the wrongs and harms involved in leading a particular relationship have hardly been investigated. Similarly, relationships have been analyzed as rather static phenomena, but once we realize that they wax and wane and can even come to an end, further moral challenges come into view.
This edited volume makes a major contribution to establishing an ethics of relationships through its analysis of many different kinds of relationships. The chapters in this collection offer an in-depth understanding of the distinct nature and value of relationships, while also highlighting the dark sides of relationships and their distinct moral intricacies. Contributions cover the relationship to self, sibling relationships, friendships, and romantic partnerships including relationships between former partners. More socially mediated connections are also discussed, such as neighbours, colleagues, students, and teachers, as well as fans and celebrities.
In addition, negative relationships-like those between enemies and those between victims and perpetrators-are explored in detail. The final chapters examine relationships with non-human entities, including companion animals and AI systems. Through its wide-ranging coverage and insightful analysis, The Ethics of Relationships significantly broadens the scope of discussion and elucidates the normative significance of relationships.
Monika Betzler, Chair for Practical Philosophy and Ethics, Faculty for Philosophy, Theory of Science and Religious Studies, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), Jörg Löschke, Professor of Practical Philosophy, Institute for Philosophy, University of Stuttgart
Monika Betzler holds the Chair for Practical Philosophy and Ethics at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich. She has also held visiting positions at Lund University, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Vienna University, Tulane University, UC Berkeley, and Harvard University. Before joining the department at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Betzler was Full Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Bern. She specializes in moral psychology, normative ethics, and normativity more generally. She is currently working on the ethics of personal relationships, the normative significance of personal projects, and empathy as a normative capacity. Her most recent publications have appeared in
The Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics, the
Journal for Applied Philosophy, and
The Pacific Philosophical Quarterly.
Jörg Löschke holds the Chair for Practical Philosophy at the University of Stuttgart. He has taught at the University of Zurich, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the University of Bern, and Bonn University. Löschke has previously held visiting positions at Princeton University, the University of Washington, and Florida State University. His research focuses on normative ethics, applied ethics, and the philosophy of normativity. At present, he is working on the ethics of personal relationships, relationships with AI, and on the consequentialism/non-consequentialism divide. His work has appeared in journals such as
Philosophical Studies,
European Journal of Philosophy,
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, and the
Canadian Journal of Philosophy.
