79112 - Podcast With US #76: Respect

N. Lygeros

In order to talk about respect and love we want firstly to study the notion of respect. So in this podcast we want to see respect not only as system of the language or even a gesture but more as a cultural value. I mean that respect is related with honor and sometimes we see respect just as something which is honorific. But the problem is that this can be only typical and in fact just social. Our point for respect is that this notion is not specific for one society, we can find it in many societies and in fact in the core of them, I mean Humanity. So the idea is that respect is something like a positive feeling but it’s free. It’s not related with the presence of fear, so it’s not something about a cultural shock. On the opposite, respect is a link, so a free relation and there is an acceptance of the difference but also of something which is complimentary. So to be in this field at the highest level means that the respect is from the others, so there is a strange relation. To be respectful is in fact ontology not teleology. But for the others the acceptance of this situation is the acceptance of the work of existence and not just the existence. So when the respect is only due to social reasons it’s just a social contract but the respect in the framework of Mankind is in fact totally different because it’s related at the end of the process to the notion of dignity. So respect is of course a positive feeling in the framework of Mankind and with the duration in time which proves its dimension as an impact on the evolution of not only the local part of Mankind but of it all. And that’s why respect is so important in the history of Mankind.