A Case for Respect and Against Respect

Mingyu Ma

Abstract
This short paper looks into the popular argument which uses the concept of a lack of ‘respect’ to
explain cases of mistreatment. The aim is to elucidate certain misconceptions regarding what it means
to respect an individual, and the futility of using respect as a criteria to prevent the occurrence of
mistreatment.

1. Introduction

Mistreatment is wrong. I do not feel like this conclusion can be disputed. Certain misguided
objections may arise from arguments regarding whether physicality or verbal abuse is justified in
certain instances to mistreat someone who ‘deserves it’, but these objections have misunderstood the
very nature of what it is to be mistreated. The concept of mistreatment is conducting oneself in an
objectively ‘wrong’ manner to another individual. For example, in a classroom, if the teacher is
having a bad day and ends up shouting unnecessary insults at a student, he is engaging in the
mistreatment of that student. In a boxing match however, even when a fighter knocks out another
fighter, he is not mistreating his opponent despite the brutality demonstrated within the ring. What
these two examples illustrate is that the concept of mistreatment is not related to the degree of
physicality or abuse, but rather is dependent on something else entirely.

2. The Argument for ‘Respect’

A rather popular argument seeking to explain the occurrence of mistreatment evokes the concept of
‘respect’. The simplified version of this thesis explains that if an individual has respect for another,
then this individual will not engage in the mistreatment of that other individual. Reversely, if an
individual does not respect another, then there could be mistreatment. I am aware that this is a rather
simplistic interpretation of the argument that will neither satisfy supporters of it, nor satisfy objecters
of it. In the following section I will address potential alterations to the respect argument and point out
my thoughts on them.

For those who stand by the respect argument, they may argue that I have presented an extreme and
biased version of the thesis, where I set up a strict conditional relationship between respect and lack of
mistreatment so that I can knock it down easily, as illustrated in Figure 1. After all, it would only take
one example where an individual respects another individual and still mistreats him/her to reject the
strict conditional. For example, I deeply respect my father, but there are times when argument arises
and I say and do things that may be regarded as mistreatment (i.e. I once faked that I was running
away from home, knowing full well that he would spend the night driving around looking for me).
There are plenty of examples that fit such a criteria, but I will not delve into these because I concede
that the extreme version of the respect thesis might be too easy to dispute, and I hope not many
engage in such idealistic conceptualisations.

Respect -> No Mistreatment

A supporter of the respect argument may instead stand by a more moderate position, possibly seeing
that respect does not equate to a guaranteed lack of mistreatment, but rather simply has a positive
effect of decreasing the probability of mistreatment occuring. A moderate position of such sort is
illustrated by Figure 2. This position actually makes perfect sense to me and I wholeheartedly agree
that this very well may be the case in reality. I do hope that more people have respect for one another
and that the probability of mistreatment decreases as a consequence of this. However, the moderate
version does not explain what is happening when an individual who displays high levels of respect for
another still mistreats them (as I did in my father example), however low the probability of this
occurring may be. This paper is trying to seek what differentiates the boxer as absolved from
accusations of mistreatment, and condemns the teacher to the same accusations. The idea of respect
decreasing the probability of mistreatment does not provide a satisfying explanation to how we may
differentiate the two cases.

High levels of respect -> Decreasing probability of mistreatment

3. The Distinction of Respect

The problem with the respect argument as I have laid it out so far, is that it does not differentiate
between the two different types of respect an individual may have for one another. For one, I can have
respect for an individual being the specific individual he/she is. This type of respect, which I will now
refer to as ‘personal respect’, can be observed most frequently with respect towards celebrities,
teachers, friends, and so on (Figure 3). Respect of the ‘personal’ type usually involves understanding
the actions or thoughts of an individual on a level that connects you, possibly sympathising with that
very individual and respecting the way he/she conducts him/herself. This requires some level of
knowledge on a personal level. For example, despite having never met him, I respect the levels to
which Kanye West has pushed the boundaries of hip-hop, which happens to be a quality that garners
my respect.

Identify an individual’s personal quality -> if amongst respected qualities -> respect individual
` [Figure 3]

The second type of respect however, is having respect for an individual simply by belonging to a
certain category, which I will now refer to as ‘categorical respect’ (Figure 4). This may refer to
respecting an individual as a female, as a male, as a transexual, as a homosexual, or simply as a
human being. It is not a necessary condition for you to even know that individual on a personal level
for you to possess a ‘categorical respect’ for them. You may simply observe from a first glance, or
hear on the news, what category that individual is in, and thus set forth an automatic level of
categorical respect towards that individual.

Identify an individual’s category -> if amongst respected categories -> respect individual
[Figure 4]

An example of this form of categorical respect may be that you hear that an unknown friend of a
friend has become a single mother, and you innately generate categorical respect towards them
through sympathization. Furthermore, you can argue that the respect generated may be stronger if you
are a single mother yourself, possibly through the ability to empathize with them. Importantly, in
reality the individual may be a horrible person, abandoning her kids to go smoke and drink and
whatnot, but the categorical respect is not dependent on this information. You respect them for being
in a certain category, and not who they are on a personal level.

I acknowledge that there are definitely certain grey areas when it comes to the distinction between
these two forms of respect. For one, what if I observe an individual wearing a Nirvana t-shirt, which
happens to be one of my criterias for respect. Does this mean I possess personal respect towards the
individual for choosing to support my favourite band, or do I possess categorical respect towards the
individual for being of the category of Nirvana fans? While interesting, I do not think the vagueness
negatively affects the soundness of my following argument. As long as we understand a distinction
between the two categories of respect, then we can understand how misconception is related.
4. Respect and Mistreatment

Let us now look at a very specific example of mistreatment, and apologies in advance for the potential
sensitivity of the case matter, but I feel it is a useful example to get to the main point. Imagine a
lonesome female being approached and mistreated inappropriately by a stranger she encounters on a
night out. If the stranger is indeed a stranger, he/she simply cannot have personal respect towards the
victim, it is against the definition of what it is to be a stranger. Therefore, the only potential form of
respect the stranger might have for the individual might be categorical respect. The individual might
respect men, for he may be a man himself. The individual might respect women, for she may be a
woman herself. However, are we to say that the stranger approached this woman because he/she
identified that she was of a category he did not respect, and thus proceeded to mistreat her? It seems
far-fetched.

But let’s alter the case now. Imagine that the victim was instead, someone the stranger had idolised as
a child, but because he was not wearing glasses that day, he did not notice that this female was the
person he idolised and personally respected. Upon approaching and noticing up close who she
actually is, does he still mistreat her? I personally do not know, but what is clear from both variations
of the case is that categorical respect is essentially useless, yet personal respect is something much
stronger and retains a certain special quality. Perhaps we need more personal respect? Potentially.

5. The Futility of Respect

Unfortunately, not all cases of mistreatment in the world can be as convenient as the stranger noticing
his potential victim was someone he had deep personal respect to. The categorical respect thesis to
explain mistreatment is unfortunately too weak in my opinion. What does it even mean to respect an
individual for being part of a category? I may think I respect all hip-hop artists for being artists, but
when it comes to meeting one of them, I may find that I have negative personal respect for the
individual. Guess which form of respect will prevail in my determination of whether I respect the
artist or not. Probably not the blindly categorical one. It’s clear that the level of personal respect I
have for an individual could negatively affect the level of categorical respect I have for him/her. The
same cannot be said for the reverse relationship.

The point of this paper is to illustrate that the concept of respecting someone based on whatever
category they belong to, be it gender, sexuality, race, or species is just a vague and pointless practice.
If we are talking about respect and mistreatment, we need to talk about personal respect and not some
variation of categorical respect. But then again, isn’t it true that there simply cannot exist personal
respect between strangers, thus how do we solve the problem of mistreatment? I conclude I do not
know what the solution is, but I know what the solution is not.