Ethics and Selfhood: Alterity and the Phenomenology of Obligation

Argues that a coherent theory of ethics requires an account of selfhood.

According to James R. Mensch, a minimal requirement for ethics is that of guarding against genocide. In deciding which races are to live and which to die, genocide takes up a standpoint outside of humanity. To guard against this, Mensch argues that we must attain the critical distance required for ethical judgment without assuming a superhuman position. His description of how to attain this distance constitutes a genuin...