Dangers and Potentialities of the Highly Mobile World: An Ethical Consideration

Abstract

Although the field of mobility research has always been interdisciplinary, its relation to philosophy has not been particularly close. This essay attempts to give a philosophical contribution to the field: an ethical consideration regarding mobility. Specifically, the dangers and potentialities in the highly mobile world will be identified and clarified through the phenomenological concepts of lifeworld, home world, and alien world. Our home world will be revealed as the sole foundation of values and norms for us. Based on these concepts, the meaning of mobility and highly mobile world will be clarified, and we will understand how high mobility leads to destabilization of the home world thereby posing a threat to our ethical foundation. Finally, three ethical potentialities that emerge from the highly mobile world will be discussed: new ways of understanding, building of a more universal lifeworld, and formation of a new ethical category.