Liberationist Ethics and the Origin of Self-Regard

Abstract

This is the inaugural work of liberationist ethics, which is a living dialogue with contemporary religious, philosophical, and cultural discourses and their interlocutors. I provoke questions of selfhood, vitality, and misery in the human condition and in religion. In particular, this work explores the origin of self-regard and how I (the very consciousness of ourselves) emerges as both a personal subject (bound as a social creature) and a universal subject (bound as a spiritual mode of being). Liberationist ethics approach consciousness (or I), the individual person (oneself), community (you), and God (the greater) with deep concern for ethical relationship, irreducible subjective personhood, and dignified human flourishing.