In this volume, affectivity, agency and intersubjectivity are explored in their interconnectedness. Attempts to delineate the dynamics and structures of human emotions, desires, passions and motivations go hand in hand with examinations of how these are translated into actions that shape a human being’s relations with him- or herself and alterity. The much debated interplays of the non-rational and the rational, the non-intentional and the intentional, appetite and reason, the lived experience and reflection are analyzed with reference to the ethical issues they raise.

The common denominator of many of this volume’s discussions is relationality. In the analyses of perception, the authors explore alternatives to the classical subject-object relation and focus on the relation between the whole of what is perceived and its parts. The tension between relationality and solitude is examined with regard to the limits of solitude, its structure and the varying levels of its intensity. When discussing the relation of the self to the other, questions concerning the radicality of the other’s otherness and of the possibilities for communication are addressed. Within the framework of phenomenological vestigation, the debate revolves around the relation between ontology and ethics, bringing up the intriguing question of the primacy of the one over the other. The productive confrontation between Heideggerian, Levinasian and Buberian lines of thought shifts the debate from the level of intersubjectivity to the level of interexistentiality.

Theories of intersubjectivity are naturally developed into theories of community. Here the tension between a pathic and an ethical community comes into play, as well as the issue of what constitutes the process of a genuine dialogue between individuals, groups and traditions. The notions of non-violence, conflict resolution and mediation are explored in order to locate the possibilities for overcoming inherited misrepresentations and traumas.

While the volume brings into dialogue the traditions of idealism, philosophy of existence, phenomenology and contemporary analytic philosophy, it also creates a platform for the confrontation between philosophy on the one hand and psychology, neuroscience, sociology, political theory and theology on the other.