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. 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. 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. 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. V: Phenomenological Communitarianism. 1. Introduction: The Descriptive & the Normative. 2. Communitarian Theory in General: Three Problems. 3. The Disappearing-Self' Problem. 4. TheIntersubjective Good' Problem. 5. The Constitution of a Community' Problem. 6. The State of our Union, the Union of our State. 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. Bibliography. Index.