Enduring We · The We in Times of Physical Distancing. From face-to-face interactions to enduring we-identities

The We in Times of Physical Distancing. From face-to-face interactions to enduring we-identities

In the last few years, the question of how best to conceive the conditions of emergence of a first-person plural “we-perspective” has been much debated. However, the philosophical focus in this interdisciplinary research area has so far mainly been on the relations between the ‘I’ and the ‘you’ considered as a key to a proper understanding of the foundations of a feeling of togetherness. As important as this focus might be, one obvious limitation is that it typically applies to transient forms of “we” that are bound to the ‘here’ and ‘now’ of face-to-face interactions. But there exist other forms of “we” that are not tied to the here and now of a physical interaction in the same way and rather imply both temporal and spatial distancing. The central objective of this project is to move beyond this impasse. Specifically, my goal was to develop a novel theoretical framework to account for the complexity of the social relation involved in polyadic, constantly shifting and, at the same time, also enduring configurations of the “we”, which go beyond the ‘here’ and ‘now’, and cross linguistic and geographic boundaries. Proceeding from the hypothesis that in order to meet this goal one need to shift the theoretical focus from dyadic face-to-face (immediate) relations of reciprocity between I and You, to ternary relations of mediated reciprocity, involving the figure and the functions of a “third party”, the project adopted an interdisciplinary methodological approach bringing together two complementary, yet unrelated, fields of research: phenomenological studies on the “we”, on the one hand, and current philosophical conceptualizations of the “third” in social theory, on the other. By fleshing out a new theoretical framework, centered on the Third, which goes beyond the scope of the dyadic face-to-face model, this project bears significant consequences for contemporary philosophical discussions on the structure and foundations of a “we-perspective”. Its timeliness echoes a need for new theoretical paradigms to address political issues related to the constitution of an enlarged a "sense of togetherness", despite separatist drifts. The research was essentially carried out along the following three overall objectives: (a) By disambiguating important conceptual distinctions between dyadic and triadic forms of interpersonal relations, through a confrontation of early German and contemporary French phenomenological perspectives on inter-subjectivity, the project aimed at challenging and complementing current phenomenological accounts of the “we”, based on the dyadic I-you relation. (b) A central outcome of the project was to design a new theoretical framework to account for the complexity of the social relation involved in polyadic, constantly shifting, and enduring configurations of the “we”, which extend beyond our immediate sphere of belonging. (c) The project also aimed at exploring the potential practical applications of this new paradigm in the political field for addressing the question of how we are to cultivate a sense of shared identity despite separatist drifts, national antagonisms and the awakening of ethno-nationalism.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union