The Agency-Respect View

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter sets out the agency-respect view of the moral normativity of socially constructed norms. Central to the view is the agency-respect principle, which states that one has an obligation to respect people’s commitments (i.e., to give “agency respect” to people), provided those commitments are authentic, morally permissible, and respecting them is not too costly. Combined with the agential-investment account of socially constructed norms introduced in Chapter 1, the principle grounds conditional obligations to obey such norms out of respect for the commitments of norm-supporters. The chapter proceeds by illustrating the implications of the principle, showing how it fits our intuitions about our duties to do what norms require and how it successfully explains where such duties come from. The final portion of the chapter is devoted to addressing objections to the agency-respect principle, including the concerns that it is overdemanding, that it can only explain the obligations of “outsiders” to communities, that it is oppressive towards dissenting minorities, and that it is too conservative.