Decency and Love (One or Two Paths to the Life of Goodness in Gaita's Work?)

Abstract

This paper traces the distinction between the claims of love and the claims of morality in the work of Raimond Gaita, and disputes it using examples from Gaita's work - particularly his use of ""decency"" in place of morality - which I try to understand better through this scrutiny. I disclose in Gaita's work the tension between highlighting love and praise of decency and I try to show that the tension between love and decency indeed remains present in his writing, but not as a contrariness of claims from both departments. Though they constitute two different claims, their mixture is imaginable and valuable even if, by taking part in it, the sense of both love and decency changes, which, however, might be seen as an opportunity to open new horizons for working both of them into human life.