The ethics of emergencies

Journal article

This thesis addresses a fundamental question in contemporary philosophy: Does ontological instability render intentional action futile, or does it reveal a deeper layer of ethical urgency grounded in participatory becoming? Traditional philosophical frameworks have assumed that effective intentional action requires a stable ontological foundation, leading to the apparent dilemma that either reality is stable enough to ground action or unstable enough to render action futile. This work challenges this binary through the development of Participatory Urgency Theory (PUT), a novel theoretical framework that demonstrates how ontological instability enhances rather than undermines moral agency. Through rigorous philosophical analysis, theoretical synthesis, and empirical modeling, this thesis argues that ontological instability creates the very conditions that make ethical action both possible and urgent. The research integrates insights from contemporary work on fluctuational metaphysics [1], process philosophy [2], intentional action theory [3], and emergency ethics [4] to develop a comprehensive framework that reconceptualizes the relationship between metaphysics and ethics. The key findings demonstrate that: (1) ontological instability generates spaces of possibility where agency can emerge and intervene; (2) participatory becoming provides the foundation for distributed rather than individual agency; (3) ethical urgency arises from our role as co-creators of reality rather than external observers; and (4) fluctuational ethics offers a more responsive and creative approach to moral reasoning than traditional rule-based systems. The thesis contributes to philosophy through the introduction of Participatory Urgency Theory, which bridges metaphysics and ethics in a novel way, provides empirical predictions for testing philosophical claims, and offers practical implications for addressing contemporary global challenges. The work concludes that ontological instability, far from rendering action futile, reveals the fundamental ethical imperative of participating in reality's continuous becoming

Authors: Sterri, AB; Moen, OM

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Journal: Philosophical Studies
• Volume: 178
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 2621-2634
• Publication date: 2020-10-09
• DOI: 10.1007/s11098-020-01566-0
• EISSN: 1573-0883
• ISSN: 0031-8116
• Language: English
• Keywords: Philosophy of language; Common sense; Philosophy of mind; Computer science; Artificial intelligence; Philosophy; Epistemology; Salient; Metaphysics; Sociology; Law and economics; Simple (philosophy); Simplicity