Liebe als Recht? Liebe als Pflicht?

Do children have a right to the love of their parents? Do parents have a duty to love their children? These questions, controversially discussed within moral philosophy, are based on empirical arguments on the one hand and norm-theoretical arguments on the other: What is disputed is firstly whether children need their parents’ love, and secondly whether love can be a right or a duty at all. The answer to both questions, however, depends on which concept of love one uses as a basis. In order to answer the question about the deontological status of parental love, I would like to show that love is not primarily a feeling, but a volitional phenomenon. If love is understood as an appreciative and benevolent affirmation of the child, the child’s need for love and the parental duty to love are compatible.Thus my position has both similarities and differences to the well-known positions of Cowden and Liao: Like Cowden, I maintain that children cannot have a right to love because there can be no right to inward attitudes. However, children have a subjective right to a sufficiently successful relationship with their parents, provided it can be constituted by actions. Parents have a duty of right to establish a relationship with their children that is characterised by respect, care and attention. In contrast to Cowden and Liao, I claim that parents have a duty of virtue to make the well-being and happiness of their children their purpose and therefore to promote it to the best of their ability. This also includes cultivating goodwill towards their children. If they are unable to do this on their own, they have a meta-duty to seek help from people who can support them in building a successful relationship with their children.