Abstract

Most philosophers believe that for a moral principle to be valid one must be able to allow others to follow the same principle. There is a question whether the principle of "agape" which enjoins placing the good of others above one's own can meet this test. The author argues that a qualified form of agapism can meet this test, and that the test in fact provides a means of arriving at an acceptable form of the ethics of love. It also provides a way of justifying some of the qualifications that some agapists have placed on the love principle.