Rationality, ethics, and space: on situated universalism and the self-interested acknowledgement of 'difference'

The author explores the relationship between rationality, ethics, and space . He argues that the contemporary ethical project involves a derationalisat ion of ethics through a recorporealisation of space. There is a move away f rom the abstract space of liberal- individualist notions of justice to more enclosed and local spaces of communitarian loyalties and intersubjective c ommunication. Postmodern interventions into the ethical realm lead us to a corporealised, intimate space that recognises difference and is heavy with phenomenological presence. The author argues that the conception of agency which explains adherence to community norms and the acknowledgement of diff erence is strategically rational self-interest. Situated practices and unde rstandings of the other rely on rational assumptions. The time - space cond itions of late modernity bring unlike others into more regular contact and open up the possibilities for more universalist forms of strong (ethical) s ocial coordination based on expanded strategic rationality.