La reconnaissance distribuée. Estime, respect et autres biens d’identité

It is commonly acknowledged that we act to obtain (to cumulate) esteem, but the nature of esteem has still to be explored: we have to question the processes through which esteem is awarded or denied. This article proposes to tackle these questions by working out a series of conceptual distinctions. It first focuses on the distinction between respect and esteem, between a form of unconditional recognition we owe to others as specimens of the mankind, and a form of variable recognition dependent on the evaluation of individual competences. Unlike respect, estimative recognition does not tend intrinsically to equity, but it operates according to the necessity of classifying a set of services. Then the text discusses the distinction between recognition and esteem. I can, indeed, recognize somebody without estimating him. The third distinction, finally, relates to the difference between what is estimated and the criteria according to which we estimate, namely the standards in virtue of which the members of a community recognize that somebody or something, having value, is worthy to be estimated.