![Snip of article listing, reading:
Article
Third-person Encounters: Beauvoir, Walther, and the ‘We’ of Social Identities
[by] Tris Hedges
Published online: 22 Dec 2025
ABSTRACT
Upon entering Harlem for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir recounts how ‘a force pulls me back … fear. Not mine but that of others – the fear of all those whites who never take the risk of going to Harlem’. But of what are they fearful? The risk, Beauvoir describes, is not that of an external danger but themselves. These passages detail the phenomenon of having one’s collective being, one’s unity to certain others, revealed to oneself through a third-person encounter. In this paper, (2) I make sense of Beauvoir’s reflections through Gerda Walther’s social ontology, (3) to show how we consistently undergo pre-reflective we-experiences qua social identities. (4) I then demonstrate how this pre-reflective ‘we’ is made reflective by the external Third; and (5) how we may reflectively disavow ourselves of this ‘we’ when we find it uncomfortable, alienating, and inappropriate. These novel inroads into the phenomenology of collective intentionality leads me (6) to argue that while members of dominant groups enjoy the privilege of having their collective being remain in the unremarkable background, members who inhabit social identities that are stigmatised and oppressed are systematically forced back upon themselves through third-person encounters.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7oz7gjqbwpc2g5gzavod5axu/bafkreidduapdnpelrutwzxjdgozo3u2zrhsphfpnbbocxtawgutglfxqce)
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Third-person Encounters: Beauvoir, Walther, and the ‘We’ of Social Identities -- Tris Hedges
Article Link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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#philsky
To round off the year, my essay 'Third-Person Encounters: Beauvoir, Walther, and the 'We' of Social Identities' was just published yesterday! This formed part of my dissertation and takes Beauvoir's trip to Harlem as a point of departure for a (nonideal) social ontology:
doi.org/10.1080/0967...
This research was funded by @carlsbergfondet.dk and is the first essay to come out as part of my project on 'The Politics and Affects of Doubt'. You can read more about this here: www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/what-we-h...
My essay 'The Affective Enforcement of Heterosexism: Self-Doubt and Queer Desire' has been published this month! In it I parse out two different forms of self-doubt and examine the role they play in maintaining a heteronormative status quo. You can find it here open access: doi.org/10.5206/fpq/...
Today’s Idea by @trishedges.bsky.social draws on existential and social phenomenology to examine the shift from ‘we’ to ‘us’, showing how the first-person plural is shaped by power, social identity and the gaze of others – and how an ‘us’ can constrain, yet also galvanise collective action
This topic has been somewhat of a side project during my PhD. If you're interested, I have a forthcoming book chapter with @lucyosler.bsky.social on how doubt can be an antagonistic political emotion, as well as a forthcoming article in Feminist Philosophy Quarterly on self-doubt and queer desire.
The first two years of the project will be carried out in Berlin with the final year in the Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies Department in Copenhagen. You can read more about the project here: www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/what-we-h...
I'm not very good at this social media business, but today feels like a significant enough milestone: As of today I'll be a postdoc working between the University of Copenhagen and the Affective Societies Centre at FU Berlin for a Carlsberg-funded project on the 'Politics and Affects of Doubt'!
Thaaaanks 🥰
In other news, happy publication day to this one! degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
A phenomenological contribution to an upcoming special issue on Katharine Jenkins‘ concept of ontic injustice.
Love receiving a revise and resubmit in which the first referee‘s comments begins with „… I think it can be published almost as it is.“ 🫠
I am co-editing an issue of Puncta with Chris Jingchao Ma on Critical Trans Phenomenology! Submissions are due July 15th. Here is the CFP with full details: puncta.journals.villanova.edu/index.php/pu...
queen did not mince a single word www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Hello Bluesky! Here is a brief description of the project. In the next 3 years, I will explore topics like community, loneliness, home, or self-narration in connection with urban affective justice.
Bart Engelen and I were interviewed for Univers about the book Extravagance and Misery, which we wrote with Alan Thomas. You can read the interview here:
universonline.nl/nieuws/2025/...
And buy the book here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
There's only one week left to apply for the open postdoc position in my ERC project on the social ontology of social cohesion! Reach out if you have any questions about eligibility, the project, or the department (which is great!).
#PhilJobs #Philosophy #SocialOntology #SocialCohesion #ERC
Less than a month left to submit to EPSSE in Paris!
Just in case anyone tries to tell you philosophy isn’t useful…
