At its most basic the concept of recognition simply relates to our interaction with our fellow man: it is a double acknowledgment of our shared common humanity and the particular needs, wants, and perspectives of individuals. It is an
idea that will be familiar to many through the story of the Good Samaritan When the priest and the Levite ignored the cries of the wounded traveler, they did so for a number of reasons—they were too busy or scared or bound by social norms to help—but primarily they failed to help because they did not recognize the man as human. He was an inconvenience, a nuisance, an obstacle to be avoided; but he was not a human being worthy of help and compassion. Only the Samaritan recognized his distinctly human suffering, and in doing so, came to a closer understanding of his own human essence. Indeed Jesus chose a Samaritan as the unlikely hero of the parable almost certainly because the character himself would have been understood (and misrecognized) as a label rather than a human being.