The fundamental value-response to the dignity and value-ladenness of beings. Reverence is, according to Hildebrand, the “mother of all virtues” and the presupposition of every adequate value-response. Without reverence the personalist norm cannot be lived.
Reverence is neither a weakness nor a feeling of submissiveness, but the fitting attitude toward what is objectively value-laden. It is the basic attitude that enables the human being to receive actuality as it is — rather than deforming it according to his own measure. Reverence before the person means perceiving her as a someone, not as a mere something, and affirming her for her own sake (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 218—222).
As an intentional feeling, reverence is not merely a subjective state of mind, but a directed response to an objectively grasped value. It belongs to the affectivity of the person and is at the same time a virtue — an attitude become habitual that forms the character of the person.
Hildebrand shows that without reverence no other virtue is possible. Whoever cannot receive actuality in its value-ladenness can be neither just nor loving nor truthful. Reverence opens the human being to the mystery of beings and protects him from the temptation to force everything under his own measure.
In the context of the personalist norm, reverence holds a key role. Only one who has reverence before the person can treat her as an end in herself and never merely use her as a means. Reverence is thus the affective foundation of the moral attitude toward persons. Its absence leads to contempt, to instrumentalization, and ultimately to the denial of personal dignity (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 218—222).
Ontological classification:
- Superordinate concept: virtue, intentional feeling
Ontological relations:
- is the presupposition of every: value-response
- is the foundation of the: personalist norm
- belongs to: affectivity
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: Personhood (German), Chapter 5: Oblivion of the Person (German)
Sources: Bexten 2017, pp. 276, 278, 282 (value-response, Hildebrand).
Further sources:
- Hildebrand, Dietrich von (1933): Sittliche Grundhaltungen. In: Die Menschheit am Scheideweg. Regensburg: Habbel (reverence as the “mother of all virtues”) (German).
See also: value-response, dignity, personalist norm, affectivity, virtue, person, someone, values, affirmation, intentional feeling, entity, disposition, Dietrich von Hildebrand