Ontology Is Social. How Arendt Solves a Wittgensteinian Problem

Abstract

Imagine that you and other scholars come together to hold a conference, to meet each other and to engage in intellectual exchange. You encounter colleagues. You might know some of them but not others. You are curious about the presentations and excited about who is speaking. Before coming to the venue, you cannot know with whom you will engage in conversations. You also do not know whether the assembled community of scholars will succeed in turning the conference venue into a space of academic discussion. Some speaker is already in the middle of her presentation.

This paper was presented at ‘Woman Phenomenologists on Social Ontology’ conference on February 13, 2016, in Paderborn. I would like to thank Ruth Hagengruber , Ronny Miron and Antonio Calcagno and all the other listeners for the great discussion and their helpful remarks. The usual caveat applies.