“Humans do not live by bread alone.” Morality is not just efforts to guide or constrain behavior.
For thousands of years, people understood morality to encompass the search for meaning. Essayists and philosophers sought to identify the Highest Good –the summum bonum–a value or set of values useful in setting all other priorities. What does it mean to lead a good life? What is flourishing (eudaimonia in Aristotle’s language)?
In a universe governed by the law of equilibrium (reciprocity), what is the cosmic meaning of injustice? How and why do bad actors get away with their misconduct? Does that mean there is no justice? Should we surrender to cynical nihilism, to the notion that there is no purpose worth living or dying for?
Tell that to the mother who foregoes nice clothes and a better home to make a good education possible for her daughter and son. Tell that to the soldier who falls on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades in arms. Tell that to the executive who gives up a high-paying job to work for a climate action organization.
Meaning comes from seeking something beyond self, something bigger, longer-lasting, greater than our own existence. Purposeful living infuses life with meaning – not in some grand cosmic sense but in daily activities. Good purposes help us know and prioritize what is right, what is good. They help us do the right thing even when it is extremely hard to keep going.
Many books have been written about the power of purpose to carry us through extreme adversity, perhaps none better than Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, originally published as … trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager ( . . . nevertheless, say Yes to life: a psychologist experiences the concentration camp).
In the context of morality, meaning intersects with respect, self-respect first and then respect for others. Respect is a dimension and quality of morality that may be impossible to capture in rules. Respect is a way of giving meaning to others, a way of seeing them as fellow human beings. 
Immanual Kant placed respect at the center of his moral theory, insisting that all people are ends in themselves, never merely means.
Thus, respect is a way to find and prioritize the values that form the foundation of a moral order.
The materials in this section will help flesh out the content of this perspective. Contribute your thoughts too.