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reaperfan t1_iu5bza3 wrote

Reply to comment by frencherfrench in Honesty’s preferred, respect is what you earn and trust is what you gain when the loyalty is returned by Mdizzle29

That's common courtesy, not respect. Respect is when something has earned your admiration, not just when you can relate to it.

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frencherfrench t1_iu61vym wrote

Respect has nothing to do with admiration lol. I respect the law of gravity; I don’t particularly admire it.

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reaperfan t1_iu69w7i wrote

re·spect

/rəˈspekt/

Learn to pronounce

noun

  1. a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

Literally copy/pasted from the dictionary results after googling "respect definition"

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frencherfrench t1_iu6exsd wrote

There are other definitions, but I concede that just being human is enough for me to respect someone. They don’t have to do anything particular to earn a baseline level of respect. If I see a little kid about to get hit by a bus, I’m trying to save them, whether I know them or not, out of respect for their existence. I would argue that’s more than “common courtesy,” as you define it.

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reaperfan t1_iu6sjuo wrote

For me it ties back to the classic Golden Rule - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It's a baseline level of behavior that I apply to anyone I meet regardless of what I know about them. That's why it's "common courtesy," because that level of empathy from me applies to everyone equally.

I would save a child about to be hit by a bus, but it's not because I respect the child. It's because if it were me or my child I would want others to do the same. I don't need to know anything about the child to have that level of empathy towards them.

Respect is different though. Respect is a response to something I know about a person. It's a difference in motivation in contrast to common courtesy. If I do something for someone out of respect it's because that person has done something that makes me want to go out of my for their sake specifically, not just because they exist as part of the general populace.

You actually hint at this a bit yourself with this line:

> out of respect for their existence

You aren't respecting the child in that instance, you're respecting the concept of existence. The child hasn't done anything to make you want to save them as an individual, but rather you have admiration for the concept of life and so you save the child out of respect for that concept rather than on behalf of the child as an individual.

And that's fine! Existence and life are incredible things that are indeed worthy of respect. But there is a difference between respecting those things and respecting the person. A person doesn't have my respect until they do something to show me that they, as an individual, are worth a higher level of consideration. Existing alone isn't enough for me to give the person respect because everyone exists. It doesn't make one person any more or less respectable than any other person.

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