Responsibility and ethics: how should we live together? Sam Rajasingham and Ben Carpenter

Race and gender are some of the ways we make people into “others.” Othering can be a source of identity as much as oppression.

What does philosophy have to say about what it means to be an other and what does it mean to live with others? Ben and Sam engage in a discussion on some of the real life consequences of this ontological divide: from how institutions sustain otherness, the Harper’s Letter, to questions on identity within online forums. The discussion reflects the philosophical interests of our two interlocutors: continental philosophy, critical theory, psychoanalysis and politics. We will be opening the lecture up for discussion in the second half.

Ben Carpenter is a researcher in philosophy specialising in contemporary identity politics as they relate to political and critical theories (such as feminist, queer, and post-colonial theory). His current research focuses on online identities, specifically examining how social media shapes and dictates the way in which we are able to create our senses of self or understand the identities of others.

Sam Rajasingham is a Masters student in philosophy. Her interests include language, Eros, psychoanalysis, otherness and critical theory. She is currently working on a dissertation on ontology, ethics and hate speech.