To the people themselves

the value of phenomenology for global ethics

Stephen Minister

pp. 13-31

in: Simmons, James E. Hackett (eds), Phenomenology for the twenty-first century, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

The twenty-first century calls for ethical reflection on global issues with a depth and breadth heretofore unknown. Yet such reflection has lagged behind professional and political discourses, which are dominated by economic and nationalist rationalities. This chapter argues that the phenomenological tradition has valuable resources to support this much needed ethical reflection. To justify this claim, this chapter critically applies phenomenological understandings of embodied subjectivity, intersubjectivity, alterity, and deconstruction to philosophical, professional, and political discourses around global issues. Because of the complexity of the issues involved and the depth of the phenomenological tradition, this chapter can only offer a sketch of the value of phenomenology for global ethics. Nonetheless, its author hopes this sketch will be sufficient to spark further inquiry.