Founding Community

Phenomenology, in its traditional encounters with ethics, has commonly aimed at a more descriptive rather than prescriptive goal. The direction of this project, however, is both phenomenological and prescriptive as I attempt to provide a phenomenological foundation for communitarian ethical theory. I argue, following Husserl, that the Ego and the Other arise together in sense and thus we are committed to community in a foundational way. I am always and fundamentally constituted as a member of a community - as a Self among Others - and, given this, there are certain ethical implications. Namely, there is a communal Good of which my good is but a perspective; indeed, it is a perspective on a Good which encompasses the whole of the living world and not just humanity. Consequently, we are foundationally imbedded in a deep community and a deep communitarian ethic.

Contenu
I: Morality and Phenomenology.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Science, Morality, and Phenomenology.- Notes.- II: The Ego and the Other in a Pairing Relation.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Empathic Perception and the Constitution of the Ego and the Other in Cartesian Meditations.- 3. The Sphere of Ownness.- 4. The Reciprocal Relation of Pairing: Some Problems.- 5. Theunissen and the Question Concerning Pairing.- Notes.- III: Instinct and the Presence of the Other.- 1. The Case for Instinct.- 2. The Other as Unity.- 3. Re-Thinking Infantile Intentionality.- 4. Limitations from a Husserlian Standpoint.- Notes.- IV: Moral Categoriality & Moral Being.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The History of Moral Theory.- 3. Categoriality and Foundations.- 4. Moral Categoriality.- 5. Morality as Choice v. Mode of Being.- 6. Problem: The Unthinking Actor.- 7. Problem: The Non-Judgmental Actor.- 8. Conclusion.- Notes.- V: Phenomenological Communitarianism.- 1. Introduction: The Descriptive and the Normative.- 2. Communitarian Theory in General: Three Problems.- 3. The Disappearing-Self Problem.- 4. The Intersubjective Good Problem.- 5. The Constitution of a Community Problem.- 6. The State of our Union, the Union of our State.- Notes.- VI: Non-Human Life and the Boundaries of Community.- 1. Introduction: A Persian Fable.- 2. Initial Human Pairing with Animals.- 3. Animal Phenomenology and the Possibility of Community Generated Without Humans.- 4. The Gracious Act of Attention Late-in-Coming.- 5. Community Through Narrative.- 6. Humans and Animals in a Second-Order Community.- 7. Conclusion: The Common Good as Moral Foundation.- Notes.