Value Respect and Attachment

The book is a contribution to the study of values as they affect both our personal and our public life. It defends the view that values are necessarily universal on the ground that that is a condition of their intelligibility. It does however reject most common conceptions of universality like those embodied in the writings on human rights. It aims to reconcile the universality of value with (a) the social dependence of value and (b) the centrality to our life of deep attachments to people and countries alike. Building from there the book explores personal love the value of life and the fundamental duty of respect for people.