No. 1 (2024): Common reality

Picture: Maximilien Luce (1858-1941): Le chantier (1911), Musée d‘Orsay (ID: 78195), © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski.

As in other humanities and social science disciplines, social ethics – regardless of the context in which it is practiced – deals with social reality. The fact that we do not have this reality for ourselves alone, but share it with others, seems self-evident in everyday life: people always already ›find‹ reality. They ›belong‹ to it – and it never ›belongs‹ to them alone. They always share it with other people who – like themselves – ›have‹ this reality as their world.  Individuals are dependent on others. Only with them do they have a common world, move in a world and understand themselves in this very world; only with others do they act in a common world – and only in this way do they shape this world and change it. In this respect, people are always dealing with a commonly shared reality.

If you pursue social ethics, you are particularly interested in the creation of commonly shared realities – and in a prominent place of this creation: politics. It is the place where the interpretation of commonly shared realities is negotiated as well as their future creation. To this end, an agreement is reached on how the commonly shared reality should be shaped and for what reasons this should be the case. In such deliberative processes, the participants assume that they share a common reality. If they realize in political debates that this is not the case, politics ends – unless they can (again) agree on a common view of their reality. Politics therefore ›needs‹ commonly shared reality in a second sense: shared common reality.

In this issue ethikundgesellschaft deals with common reality. The articles move between the two sides, each with its own focus: On the one hand, it is about commonly shared reality: What is the nature of this reality? Do judgments in the humanities and social sciences refer to a predetermined, objective reality in the narrow sense or to a shared but contingent and socially created reality? Which understanding of reality has which emancipatory potential? What implications does the understanding of reality have for social ethics? On the other hand, it is about shared reality: How can divisions of shared reality be explained? What divisions are we dealing with in current disputes? How can these divisions be addressed? What role do they play for scientific theories that refer to the politically negotiated shaping of commonly social reality?

Edited by Manuela Wannenmacher

In the review section, 15 new books from various subjects and disciplines are discussed. A new biography of Troeltsch, new studies on Hannah Arendt and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a book on the political philosophy of liberalism and a publication on a 'theory of liberation' from the context of critical theory are presented. Current studies from the social sciences and political theory on 'authoritarian liberalism' and the 'twilight of democracy' will also be presented, as well as publications on the ethics of computer games, peace theology, the relationship between theology and digitalization and the philosophy of digitalization. There are also texts on the relationship between theological ethics and human dignity, the need for reform in the relationship between the state and religious communities, the unconditional basic income and the foundations of modern business ethics. We hope you enjoy reading and browsing.

Edited by Tim Eckes and Hermann-Josef Große Kracht