Pacific philosophical quarterly · 2009 · 51 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesPhilosophyEthicsMoral PsychologySelfEmpathic ConcernMoral CharacterMoral PhilosophyMoral VirtueNormative EthicsVirtue Ethics
Abstract What do we do when a loved one is seriously messing up her life? While Kantianism describes the predicament nicely as a tension between love and respect, it is not well‐suited to resolving it. Kantian respect prevents minding another's business in cases where love demands it. Virtue ethics can readily explain the predicament as a tension between the virtues of sympathy and humility. Moreover, by changing the focus away from the other as a setter of ends and toward the would‐be‐benefactor's own degree of practical wisdom, virtue ethics permits a more nuanced set of loving responses to self‐destructive people.