Dr. Bryan Lueck will give his sabbatical research presentation, "Contempt, Respect, and Recognition":
1:30-3:30 p.m.
Today
Peck Hall, Room 2411
The presentation is open to everyone.
Abstract information: Since the early modern period, the vast majority of philosophers who have written on contempt have understood it as a denial of respect. But there has been considerable disagreement about precisely what kind of respect we deny people when we contemn them.
Contemporary philosophers who defend contempt as a morally appropriate attitude tend to understand it as a denial of what Stephen Darwall calls appraisal respect, while early modern writers, who all believe that contemning others constitutes a serious moral wrong, seem to understand it more as a denial of recognition respect.
I argue that neither of these understandings of contempt hits the mark, and that we do better to conceptualize it as a denial of recognition in the sense articulated by Axel Honneth, and by other critical theorists who have been influenced by his work.
For more information, email rfry@siue.edu.
