Abstract:
K. E. Løgstrup’s work remains largely absent in contemporary phenomenological research about sociality and community. One plausible reason for this neglect is that Løgstrup’s The Ethical Demand doesn’t provide much by way of an elaboration of his understanding of phenomenology, in spite of indicating a reliance on it. However, consideration of Løgstrup’s work before and after his magnum opus suggests that his philosophical approach is firmly anchored in the phenomenological tradition, and that some of the main interlocutors along the way that led to The Ethical Demand (and beyond) were Scheler, Husserl, Heidegger, Löwith, and, especially, Hans Lipps. Attention to this lineage, as well as to Løgstrup’s discussion of topics like trust, communication, and community, supports the view that the current neglect of his work in phenomenological research is an unfortunate and ultimately unwarranted omission. The aims of my talk are (1) to locate Løgstrup’s work on sociality in a phenomenological context, and (2) to motivate its broader contemporary relevance. I pursue (1) by arguing that one of Løgstrup’s central philosophical contributions is the development of a distinctive second-personal phenomenology of social life, in which communicative trust—as well as other ‘sovereign expressions of life’ (Løgstrup, 2007)—constitutes the bedrock of the social world. I approach (2) by exploring some connections between Løgstrup’s second-personal phenomenology and ongoing discussions in care ethics, enactivism, and non-ideal social ontology.