ABSTRACT
This chapter continues transversal reasoning (TR) with a conversation on chessed between Jonathan Sacks and the economist Samuel Bowles, and between Sacks and Bart Nooteboom on the governance of chessed. The reason for this TR is to explore its relevance for a social response to radical uncertainty in the context of climate change. TR on chessed indicates other-regarding motives, besides self-interest, for dealing with radical uncertainty in the context of climate change. People inspired by chessed learn to take responsibility together, bottom-up and in the present, for a shared future. The plurality among those involved is crucial for opening up the identities people are living by in order to create a new ‘we’. This new ‘we’ is not only between humans, but also between humans and non-humans. Joy appears as one of the results of building relationships inspired by chessed. TR points out that there are also negative other-regarding motivations and that seemingly positive motivations can slip into negative ones. This raises the question of whether it is possible to govern positive motivations. To answer this question, TR turns to a conversation between Sacks and Nooteboom. This conversation highlights the role of the covenant in governing positive other-regarding motivation on a micro- and macro-scale. It is argued that, in a social response to radical uncertainty in the context of climate change, the covenant can be supported by, and help to flesh out, competition (market) and hierarchy (government).
