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In recent decades philosophy has discovered the importance of caring and empathy, but a virtue that underlies them, the virtue of receptivity, has been almost totally neglected. This paper argues that receptivity is necessary to respect for others; is important as an attitude toward the natural world; and is essential to the epistemological value of open-mindedness. None of this has been philosophically recognized, but in addition, the liberal idea that every emotion and relationship should be subjected to scrutiny and the rationalistic recommendation that one should live with a total life plan show a lack of receptivity, respectively, to what life has brought one’s way and to what life may bring one in the future. Western philosophy has emphasized rational control/autonomy at the expense of receptivity, and we need a more balanced approach to these values. And such an approach would also allow us to be receptive to what life can really offer us and recognize, in a way so many philosophers have not, that ordinary life can often be more than satisfactory.