Who Are We?
Self-identity, Social Cognition, and Collective Intentionality
The project will investigate what it means to feel, think, and act as part of a we. Its guiding hypothesis is that a systematic account of the we must be embedded in a more comprehensive investigation of selfhood and social cognition.
The project will systematically develop this hypothesis by combining cross-disciplinary theorizing with historical scholarship. In particular, it will draw on seminal contributions from classical phenomenology. In addition to philosophers, the project will also involve social scientists (from social anthropology, sociology, social psychology, political theory etc.).
- What is the relation between collective identity and self-identity? How is the we related to the I?
- How is collective intentionality and the we-perspective related to social cognition and interpersonal understanding?
- What is the relation between different kinds of we, and which type of self-experience and interpersonal understanding do they each require?
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Sub-project A) We and I Does a we-perspective have a stable first-person singular perspective as its necessary precondition, or is it independent of, and perhaps even prior to, individual subjectivity? How does one come to experience oneself as ‘one of us’, and how precisely does such a process of group-identification alter the first-person perspective singular? Sub-project B) We and you What kind of understanding of and relation to others is of relevance for the emergence of a we-perspective? Is second-person engagement, relating to another as a you, of particular importance? Sub-project C) Varieties of We What is the relation between an ephemeral form of we that is bound to the here and now of concrete face-to-face interaction and a more enduring, but at the same time also more normatively mediated and impersonal form of collective identity. Does the latter depend on the former, or does it have its own originality and irreducibility? |
The project will be supported by an international expert panel composed of:
- Dominic Abrams (Kent)
- Michael Bratman (Stanford)
- Malinda Carpenter (St. Andrews)
- Naomi Eilan (Warwick)
- Miles Hewstone (Oxford)
- Axel Honneth (Frankfurt/Columbia)
- Philippe Rochat (Emory)
- Hans Bernhard Schmid (Vienna)
- Jason Throop (UCLA)
- Deborah Tollefsen (Memphis)
- Nicolas de Warren (Penn State).
2022
Szanto, T. "Sacralizing Hostility: Fanaticism as a Group-Based Affective Mechanism." In M. Staudigl, H. B. Schmid, L. Townsend, and R. R. Tietjen (Eds.): Confronting Fanaticism. Theoretical and Applied Perspectives (pp. 184–212). London, New York: Routledge 2002.
León, F., Zandersen, M., Meindl, P., Zahavi, D.: "The distinction between second-person and third-person relations and its relevance for the psychiatric diagnostic interview" In M. Biondi, A. Picardi, M. Pallagrosi, L. Fonzi (eds.): The Clinician in the Psychiatric Diagnostic Process (pp. 51-69). Springer: Cham.
León, F.: "Attention in Joint Attention: From Selection to Prioritization". In M. Wehrle, D. D'Angelo, & E. Solomonova (Eds.), Access and Mediation. Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Attention. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2022, pp. 65-90.
2021
Meindl, P.: "From the Thou to the We: Rediscovering Martin Buber’s Account of Communal Experiences". Human Studies 44 (3), 2021, 413-431.
Nguyen, C., Salmela, M., & von Scheve, C.: From specific worries to generalized anger: the emotional dynamics of right-wing political populism. In M.T. Oswald (Ed.), Palgrave Handbook of Populism (pp. 145-160). Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Salmela, M., & Capelos, T.: "Ressentiment: A Complex Emotion or an Emotional Mechanism of Psychic Defences?" Politics and Governance, 9(3), 2021, 191-203.
León, F.: "Collective Intentionality, We-identity, and the Role of Narratives in the Constitution of Friendship". In J. Noller (ed.), The Unity of a Person: Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2021, 185-206.
Szanto, T.: "Can it Be or Feel Right to Hate? On the Appropriateness and Fittingness of Hatred". Philosophy and Society 32(3), 2021, 341–368.
Osler, L., Szanto, T.: "Political Emotions and Political Atmospheres”. In D. Trigg (Ed.). Shared Emotions and Atmospheres. London, New York: Routledge, 2021, 162–188.
Salmela, M. & Capelos, T.: "Ressentiment: A Complex Emotion or an Emotional Mechanism of Psychic Defences?" Politics and Governance 9(3), 2021, 191-203.
Zahavi, D.: "We in me or me in we? Collective intentionality and selfhood". Journal of Social Ontology 7/1, 2021, 1-20.
Szanto, T.: "Hass und die negative Dialektik affektiver Herabsetzung." Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 69/3, 2021, 422–437.
León, F.: "Joint Attention Without Recursive Mindreading: On the Role of Second-Person Engagement". Philosophical Psychology, 34(4), 2021, 550-580.
Overgaard, S. and Salice, A.: “Consciousness, Belief, and the Group Mind Hypothesis”. Synthese 198, 2021, 1597-1621.
Salice, A., Henriksen, M.G.: "Disturbances of Shared Intentionality in Schizophrenia and Autism." Frontiers in Psychiatry 11, 2021, 570597.
Gallagher, S., Zahavi, D.: The Phenomenological Mind. 3rd edition. London: Routledge, 2021. (p. 294).
2020
Szanto, T.: "Phenomenology and Social Theory". In P. Kivisto (ed.): The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory. Volume I: A Contested Canon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 292–316.
Szanto, T.: "Why should we give a damn?" The Philosopher 108/4, 2020, 32-37.
Zahavi, D.: "We and I". The Philosopher 108/4, 2020, 19-24.
León, F.: "For-me-ness, For-us-ness, and the We-relationship". Topoi, 39/3, 2020, 547-558.
Szanto, T.: "Imaginative Resistance and Empathic Resistance". Topoi 39/4, 2020, 791–802.
Szanto, T.: "In Hate We Trust: On the Habitualization and Collectivization of Hatred". Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2020, 19/3, 453–480.
Szanto, T. & Landweer, H. (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotions. London, New York: Routledge, 2020.
Szanto, T. & Slaby, J.: "Political Emotions". In Szanto, T. & Landweer, H. (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotions. London, New York: Routledge, 2020, 478-492.
Szanto, T. & Landweer, H.: "Introduction: The Phenomenology of Emotions - Beyond ‘What it is like to Feel’". In Szanto, T. & Landweer, H. (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotions. London, New York: Routledge, 2020, 1-37.
Zahavi, D.: "Shame". In T. Szanto & H. Landweer (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotions. London: Routledge, 2020, 349-357.
Szanto, T. & Moran, D.: "Edith Stein". In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), (pp. 1-73), 2020.
Researchers
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hedges, Tristan | PhD Fellow | +4535325790 | |
| León, Felipe | Assistant Professor | +4535335595 | |
| Meindl, Patricia | PhD Student | +4535335213 | |
| Salmela, Mikko | Associate Professor | +45+358405680684 | |
| Szanto, Thomas | Associate Professor | +4535333788 | |
| Vesterager, Mette | PhD Fellow | +4535337817 | |
| Zaenker, Julia | PhD Fellow | +4535332395 | |
| Zahavi, Dan | Professor | +4535328690 | |
| Zandersen, Maja | Postdoc | +4535328297 | |
| Zelinsky, Dominik | Postdoc | +4535330459 |
Funding
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 832940).
This project has received funding from the Carlsberg Foundation.
Project period: 01 January 2020 – 31 December 2025.
Contact
Head of project, professor Dan Zahavi