Respect

Respect refines animal territoriality into respect for property.

"Timeic" is from Greek time, often translated "honour" but connoting a duty towards all men, whereas sebas (often translated "respect") connotes a recognition of merit or of position.

Respect is a root both of conversation (which is inherently interactive) and of altruism (which is not). A respecter requires no response; he merely, in his own mind, recognises and positively evaluates another selfhood, though of course this tends to lead on to conversation. The cultural area defined by mere respect seems rather impoverished, but all my thinking has led me to regard respect as a distinct realm, so I conjecture that this apparent poverty is a function of our habitual modes of thought rather than an inherent characteristic of the realm, and that in due course the inner wealth of this realm will become more apparent.

"Justice" has been used in many senses. Sometimes it denotes the full set of standards of good conduct towards others, but I use it to denote one of those standards. I would avoid it altogether but I see no viable alternative.

Back to Cosmology.