We are indebted to them for their expertise and, for the sake of
justice, need to repay this debt even when we are not their subjects.
Such recognition of knowledge and virtue approaches Honneth’s
ideas of respect and esteem (section 1.2). Thomas’s view here is
similar to Honneth’s in claiming that there are issues of recognition
that do not stem from institutional codes of honour but are directly
related to the personhood, knowledge, and skills of others. At the
same time, we should not modernize Thomas too much. Unlike
Honneth, he is not teaching equal respect towards all, but simply
pointing out that we need to recognize some experts andvirtuosos^90
on the basis of their skills.
Ficino (section 2.5) proceeds much further towards equality in his
analysis of loving recognition. While he considers that the initial stage
of love takes place between the‘more’and‘less’beautiful partners,
he teaches that they both represent the same archetypal model of
personhood.^91 In learning to recognize this model within themselves,
the lovers approach equality, which is considered to consist in this
fundamental likeness. Therefore, Ficino has a strong notion of equal
recognition. However, this notion does not embrace the issues of
difference and otherness in the manner of modern theories of recog-
nition. Ficino’s Platonic model embraces equality at the expense of
excluding otherness.
Thomas Hobbes (section 3.1) explicitly connects acknowledge-
ment with equality. If Hoekstra’s interpretation^92 is correct, we may
say that Hobbes goes beyond Thomas and Ficino. Hobbes claims that
we should acknowledge that all humans are equal irrespectively of
whether this equality is a fact of nature. While Thomas believes in
natural hierarchies and Ficino claims that we canfind equality among
lovers, Hobbes maintains that equality should be acknowledged as a
‘law of nature’in any case. In this manner, some progress towards
equal recognition of all people can be observed.
During the modern era, religious recognition does not highlight
equality in thefirst place. The existential attachment of the faithful, as
well as the divine act of recognizing people, are rather oriented
towards new creation and the new existence experienced in religion.
The regard for others and otherness is stronger in authors like
(^90) Remarkably, Thomas employs this word inSThII/2, 102 a1 ad3.
(^91) Ficino,De amoreII, 8 and VI, 6. Cf. section 2.5.
(^92) Hoekstra 2013. Cf. section 3.1.
250 Recognition and Religion