Emotion and ethics

an inter-(en)active approach

Giovanna Colombetti

Steve Torrance

pp. 505-526

in: Ezequiel Di Paolo (ed), The social and enactive mind, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 8 (4), 2009.

Abstract

In this paper, we start exploring the affective and ethical dimension of what De Jaegher and Di Paolo (Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6:485–507, 2007) have called "participatory sense-making'. In the first part, we distinguish various ways in which we are, and feel, affectively inter-connected in interpersonal encounters. In the second part, we discuss the ethical character of this affective inter-connectedness, as well as the implications that taking an "inter-(en)active approach' has for ethical theory itself.