ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some themes rooted in Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology in order to sketch briefly the relations between the moral self and moral others under four headings. The first two headings are the intersubjectivity of thinking, its passive formation of the moral self, and its invitation to self-responsible thinking and self-responsible thinking in the moral sphere and the emergence of moral self-identity. The last two headings are moral identification with the other and respect for the other. The chapter focuses on what rational justification in the sphere of the moral, with its evaluative and volitional components, is for the self-responsible agent. Despite Oscar Wilde’s cynicism about the moral character of most people, the epigraph captures something true about all persons and perhaps the whole truth about some, perhaps even most, persons. Moral action, while retaining its connection to the personal situation, transcends the particular interests and desires.
