She may not have known it, but she was an anti-Kantian in ethics.
Today is the birthday of manners maven Emily Post... She thought etiquette manuals were awful, so she set out to write one that was more about treating people decently rather than just following rules. The result was her book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home (1922), and she wrote about etiquette for the rest of her life.
Emily Post, who said, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” WA
(HO3) I prefer this view of manners over the traditional view. In my opinion, some parts of traditional manners are a waste of time and keep people that did not grow up in upper class society from being able to fit in with the upper class. Treating people respectfully should be considered much better manners than following a set of rules that really have no significance other than a calling card for wealth and "class."
ReplyDeleteH3
ReplyDeleteI agree with this definition of manners. Often we are taught to have good manners with people of authority just out of respect, but we should take a further step and try to be aware of others feelings in the way that we treat them.