PANEL 22 / RELATIONAL HUMANITY AS MORAL GROUND: CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
CONVENORS: NICOLE HASSOUN, HIN SING
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected] and [email protected].
Traditional Western ethical theory has long been shaped by an individualistic conception of the human as a separate, rational, and autonomous subject. Yet contemporary global challenges—ranging from climate change and technological transformation to public health crises and geopolitical instability—call for cross-traditional perspectives that move beyond this narrow model. This panel brings together philosophical resources across various traditions (commonly grouped as Western, Indian, African, Buddhist, Confucian) to rethink humanity as relationally constituted rather than defined by intrinsic traits.
We approach the question of the ontology of humanity as twofold. First, what is the internal structure of humanity—what are the reasons to think of humanity as fundamentally constituted through relations? Second, how should we understand the boundaries and relationships between humanity and non-humanity?
Our relational conception of humanity invites us to rethink moral responsibility toward both present humanity and future generations, as well as the rational and motivational grounds of care, solidarity, responsibility, and virtue. Rather than understanding these values as ultimately grounded in self-interest, the relational conception interprets them as responses to our fundamentally relational mode of existence. We care, not because doing so maximizes individual benefit, but because we are constituted through relations in which others’ well-being is partly constitutive of our own.
The panel also addresses questions concerning the boundaries and relationships between humanity and non-humanity. If humanity is defined relationally rather than by intrinsic traits, how should we understand our moral relationships with non-human animals, ecosystems, and technological entities? A relational framework shifts attention away from classificatory thresholds toward the meaning of relationships, enabling context-sensitive accounts of moral responsibility across species and forms of existence.
Overall, the panel advances a cross-traditional conversation about how relational conceptions of humanity can reshape both foundational ethical theory and practical responses to contemporary global challenges.
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected] and [email protected].
Traditional Western ethical theory has long been shaped by an individualistic conception of the human as a separate, rational, and autonomous subject. Yet contemporary global challenges—ranging from climate change and technological transformation to public health crises and geopolitical instability—call for cross-traditional perspectives that move beyond this narrow model. This panel brings together philosophical resources across various traditions (commonly grouped as Western, Indian, African, Buddhist, Confucian) to rethink humanity as relationally constituted rather than defined by intrinsic traits.
We approach the question of the ontology of humanity as twofold. First, what is the internal structure of humanity—what are the reasons to think of humanity as fundamentally constituted through relations? Second, how should we understand the boundaries and relationships between humanity and non-humanity?
Our relational conception of humanity invites us to rethink moral responsibility toward both present humanity and future generations, as well as the rational and motivational grounds of care, solidarity, responsibility, and virtue. Rather than understanding these values as ultimately grounded in self-interest, the relational conception interprets them as responses to our fundamentally relational mode of existence. We care, not because doing so maximizes individual benefit, but because we are constituted through relations in which others’ well-being is partly constitutive of our own.
The panel also addresses questions concerning the boundaries and relationships between humanity and non-humanity. If humanity is defined relationally rather than by intrinsic traits, how should we understand our moral relationships with non-human animals, ecosystems, and technological entities? A relational framework shifts attention away from classificatory thresholds toward the meaning of relationships, enabling context-sensitive accounts of moral responsibility across species and forms of existence.
Overall, the panel advances a cross-traditional conversation about how relational conceptions of humanity can reshape both foundational ethical theory and practical responses to contemporary global challenges.
