This paper explores the compatibility between the Daoist art of emptying one’s heart-mind and the art of creating close relationships. The fact that a Daoist sage is characterized by an empty heart-mind makes him somewhat different from an average human being: since a full heart-mind is characteristic of the human condition, the sage transcends what makes us human. This could alienate him from others and make him incapable of developing close relationships. The research goal of this paper is to investigate (...) whether – in spite of being an unusual human being – a Daoist sage has the abilities necessary for creating close bonds with others. (shrink)

The main task of this paper is to draw a normative picture of close interpersonal bonds and demonstrate why they are ethically relevant and important. I start by showing that the notion of ‘close relationships’ is a notion in its own right—overlapping with but not reducible to the notion of ‘love,’ ‘friendship,’ or ‘kinship.’ Then, I go on to discuss particular features of close relationships. I start with consensuality, reciprocity, persistence in time. After that, I move on to non-instrumental treatment (...) and the mutual sharing of responsibility, which is connected with treating the interests of the close other as one’s own. Another features I discuss are truthfulness in the way we narrate our autobiographical stories, openness to the close other’s co-creation of our narrative truth, and the readiness to co-create the narrative truth of the close other in return. Finally, I focus on trust; I show that the kind of trust which is characteristic of close relationships is connected with particular competences that a person should manifest in order to be a trustworthy close-relationship partner. From the fact that no person is morally infallible, it can be inferred that we need to depend on competent others in order to take full respon­sibility for ourselves as moral agents. The people we choose to be in close relationships with are precisely such competent others; they are the guardians and the co-authors of our moral agency and our narrative identity. (shrink)

Human beings have a preference to hold some people closer and dearer than the rest of the human species. Furthermore, we have a tendency to spend more time with these close others, to share with them our activities, interests, the narratives of who we are, as well as our life energy and other resources. The reason for this is that, as Frank Jackson puts it, “[o]ur lives are given shape, meaning and value by what we hold dear, by those persons (...) and life projects to which we are especially committed.” Samuel Scheffler adds that because we value them, personal projects and close relationships give us reasons for action. Therefore, close relationships and personal projects are what makes life worth living and what makes our actions worth performing. If a life worth living is an examined life, and close relationships constitute an important part of what makes life worth living, it is worthwhile to examine the topic of interpersonal closeness. Guided by this reasoning, a group of academics have come together to produce this volume of Etyka—a volume dedicated to the ethics of close relationships. (shrink)