Violence, affect and ethics

This chapter considers Butler's treatment of affect and its import for understanding ethical responses to violence and war. Building on Butler's affective conception of ethics, the chapter argues that her emphasis on the visceral dimensions of social and political life makes an important contribution to a still neglected topic in the fields of global ethics and political philosophy that contributes notably towards an understanding of the differentiated visceral responses to the suffering of others, specifically in the context of war. However, despite the explanatory force and normative ambition of Butler’s rendering of the relationship between affect and ethics, her account lacks normative plausibility. While she tells us why we should respond ethically towards others, she cannot tell us why we should feel ethically disposed towards others. This connection between ethical obligation and ethical feeling, or affect, is not finally resolved in her work.