Abstract
Many of our most important relationships are profoundly partial (that is, non-impartial) in nature. Discussions of partiality have often focused on our actions. Traditionally, the dominant concern is with beneficial or detrimental behavior, as in contexts involving the distribution of goods or saving endangered persons from harm. As a result, other aspects of partiality have been neglected. In this talk I draw attention to some of those neglected aspects, particularly as they concern, not how we affect others, but how we are affected by others: how our emotions and ways of perceiving the world are altered by our experience of personal relationships. I argue that reorienting our conception of partiality in this way can help us better understand a number of important phenomena. These include, first, the nature of commitment in personal relationships; and second, why, despite certain arguments to the contrary, it makes sense to regard loyalty as a virtue.
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