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How is it between us? Relational ethics and transcendence
Author(s) -
Zigon Jarrett
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9655.13496
Subject(s) - transcendence (philosophy) , transcendental number , politics , ethnography , sociology , harm , epistemology , environmental ethics , ethics of care , meta ethics , applied ethics , information ethics , social psychology , political science , philosophy , law , psychology , anthropology
In this article, I engage the recent debate on transcendence/the transcendental within the anthropology of ethics with the claim that ‘How is it between us?’ is the most fundamental of all ethical questions. In doing so, I contrast relational ethics with ordinary ethics to show that ethics begins with a demand that emerges from a situation within which one finds oneself with others; a demand that pulls one out of oneself to respond in a modality of concern and care for the between where we dwell together. This attuned response is both an ethical and a political one; a response that opens possibilities for being‐together‐otherwise. Such possibilities, I argue throughout, can only begin with a relational ethics. I illustrate this with an ethnographic example from harm reduction practice and anti‐drug war political activity in both New York City and Vancouver, Canada.