Arguably, one of the main challenges to open societies amounts to keeping the freedom of the individual and the social bond between the individuals in balance. Next week, an interdisciplinary conference in Munich will provide ample space for discussions on the topic Solidarity in Open Societies.
I look forward to learning more about different notions of solidarity and their application to the context of what is currently called the migration crisis. I will also contribute to the sessions by presenting some thoughts on ‘Solidarity and Absolute Responsibility’. In that talk I will investigate how the proposals towards an ethics of absolute alterity made by Levinas, Derrida, Caputo and others can actually inform the discussion on solidarity in open societies.
Among other things, I shall argue that those proposals identify and address important challenges that an account of solidarity in open societies has to meet. However, I remain skeptical to what extent the insistence on an absolute otherness is of help in this context.
See you there!
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