Subject:
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Center for Cognition, Culture and Language (CCCL) Developing normativity in education |
Organization:
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SW OZ BSI FGW Leerstoel Filosofie van cognitie en taal |
Journal title:
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Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
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Abstract:
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n this paper I argue for the claim that self-love is a precondition for self-knowledge. This claim is relevant to the contemporary philosophical debate on self-knowledge, but mainly because it draws attention to the role of claims of self-knowledge in the larger context of our ordinary practice of rationalizing and appropriating our actions. In this practice it is crucial for persons to open-mindedly investigate the limits of their own responsible agency, an investigation that requires a warm and gentle kindness to avoid both being too easy in welcoming and too merciless in resisting one's own imperfections as a minded agent. This kindness, I argue, is grounded in an evaluative relation of caring, a type of relation that is incompatible with self-hatred.
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