Relational Moral Demands

Abstract Relational moral theories hold that at least some moral demands are grounded in a relation between individuals. But how should this relation be understood? Most contemporary relational theories have an individuals-first structure: they presuppose that the moral relations that ground moral demands can be explained in terms of relational moral properties of the individuals involved. Radical relationalism, by contrast, has a relations-first structure: it holds that the moral relations that ground relational moral demands are normatively prior to relational moral properties of individuals. My aim in this paper is to argue that some moral demands are radically relational.