"We"

a linguistic and phenomenological analysis

pp. 215-245

in: Herbert Spiegelberg, Doing Phenomenology, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1975

Abstract

This essay has three major objectives. The first is to me the most urgent one. I believe that it is time to challenge the social arrogance expressed in the universal tendency to say "we," "us," and "our" when one has no business talking for anyone but oneself. This tendency is part of the "arrogance of power" behind the patronizing usurpation of the right to speak for the "free" people of the world, when they have never been asked, or the arrogant claim to speak for the "old" or the "new" generation, for "we philosophers," and even for "we phenomenologists." It is time to check on the credentials for such impostures.