In this presentation, Maira contrasts two forms of reasoning in ethics, what she calls the logic of isolation and the logic of relationality.

The logic of isolation, which has long dominated Western moral thought, is rooted in the ideal of the self as rational, autonomous, and self-sufficient. It treats emotion, desire, and the body as distractions from virtue, reinforcing the notion that the only way to be ethical is by stepping back from the lived realities of vulnerability and dependence.

In contrast, the logic of relationality begins from our embodied condition. By discussing eroticism, corporeality, and aging, she argues that the body is not a limitation to be overcome but the very ground of ethical (and political) awareness. And although isolation is often upheld as a moral ideal, this logic runs contrary to the shared logic of life itself, and can be rightly called a deluded one.