Morality originally meant devotion of I to thou before being abstracted

Evidence

The original content of morality is of an altruistic-social nature. The idea is not that morality has its own life independent of this content and merely absorbs it. Rather, the devotion of the “I” to the “thou” (in the singular or plural) is the very idea, the definition, of the moral. Philosophical doctrines of ethics represent, by comparison, a much later phase. In them, an absolutely objective Ought is separated from the question of “I” and “thou.” — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6550

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the moral as the I-thou devotion, with objective Ought as a later abstraction — the dyadic root of ethics.
• XREF: Directly relevant to Shapiro and to the triad thesis: morality is originally dyadic (I-thou) and needs a third to be objectified. — connects to: Explaining morality as mere authority leaves its ultimate origin unexplained — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 126