Responsible Treatment of Others

I believe that the principle number one that should guide how we treat other people is the ethic of reciprocity, also known as the Golden rule.

All religious and non-religious ideas include the concept of reciprocity, that "every person shares certain inherent human rights, simply because of their membership in the human race" (Robinson, 2009).

Therefore, everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. Consider the following:

Judaism

• "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev.19:18)
• "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary" (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
• "And what you hate, do not do to any one" (Tob, 4:15 6)

Christianity

• "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets" (Matt, 7: 12)
• "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (Luke 6: 31)
• "Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt, 19:19)

Islam

• "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself" (Number 13 of Iman Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths)
  
• "God does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing justly with those who have not fought you about religion and have not driven you out of your homes. God loves just dealers" (Quran, 60:8)
• "Whoever has killed a person shall not smell the fragrance of Paradise"
• "There is a reward for kindness to every living animal or human" (Prophet Muhammed)
• "O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other, not that ye may despise each other. Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you" (Quran 49:13)
  

Confucianism

• "Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state" (Analects 12:2)
• "Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire" (Doctrine of the Mean 13:3)
• "Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence" (Mencius VII.A.4)

Brahmanism

• "This is the sum of Dharma (duty): Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you" (Mahabharata, 5: 1517)

Buddhism

• "A state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?" (Samyutta Nikaya v. 353)
• "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful" (Udana-Varga 5: 18)

Hinduism

• "This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you" (Mahabharata 5: 1517)

Native American Spirituality

• "Respect for all life is the foundation" (The Great law of Peace)
• "All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One" (Black Elk)
• "Do not wrong or hate your neighbor. For it is not he who you wrong, but yourself" (Pima proverb)

Kant based his ethic on the categorical imperative, which said that we should see our actions as though they would become the guiding principles for the actions of all.

How should we treat others?

It seems clear to me that most people would agree that we should treat others in the same way we would want to be treated.