Normative Pluralism and the Other

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to consider the issue of how we conceive of others when engaging in the activity of perspective taking. Are we supposed to think from the standpoint of abstract and generalized others? Or should we strive to engage with concrete, particular others? The article suggests that what matters is that we encounter the other in their particularity rather than their generality—and that this distinction cuts across the more frequently invoked, modal distinction between possibility and actuality. In other words, what is relevant is not whether the other exists or not, but whether we encounter them in all their individuality and uniqueness.