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Thomas Schwarz Wentzer

Sharing Responses

This subproject will contribute to a conceptualization of collective ethical experiences. In recent philosophical approaches to the sociality of human conduct, joint actions are typically approached via paradigms of intentionality (Bratman 2014; Tomasello 2008, Schmid 2009) or pragmatism (Joas 1993, Gilbert 2000). The responsivist paradigm (Waldenfels 1994, 2011), instead, emphasizes a common exposedness, which precedes any normative or intentional behavior. Responsiveness is not restricted to individual experience, and the ethical demand is not necessarily related to the request of the ethical Other (Levinas 1991) between individuals, but can also be understood as a shared exposedness to an ethically demanding situation. This project explores collective ethical experiences, seeing ethical communities, not as primarily built on shared norms or intentions, but on shared affective stances displaying a common exposedness to the moral intricacies of life.