Intimacy sufficient to generate prima facie duties of non-severance requires reciprocal recognition and mutual responsiveness, as defended by Macmurray and later relational theorists.

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John Macmurray(as a philosopher name): A 20th-century Scottish philosopher who argued that human relationships and personal connection are the foundation of all meaningful life, rather than abstract thinking.
Mutual responsiveness(as used in relational philosophy): When two people are genuinely attentive and reactive to each other's needs, feelings, and actions—each person cares about how the other responds to them.
Non-severance(as used in relational ethics): The idea of not breaking apart or ending a relationship or connection.
Reciprocal recognition(Hegel's central concept): The idea that self-aware beings (like humans) need to acknowledge each other as equals and conscious agents in order to fully understand themselves—you can't know who you are without another person recognizing you as real.
Relational theorists(as a school of philosophical thought): Philosophers and thinkers who believe that relationships between people, not isolated individuals, are the most basic and important feature of human existence.
prima facie duties(W.D. Ross's moral framework): Obligations that hold unless overridden by other conflicting obligations in particular circumstances

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